You Vs.PCGS (Seated Quarter) Answer Given

I am with "ErrorCoins222" at MS-62. It has almost certainly been dipped pretty heavily. The fields are fully lustrous, but liberty's devices are lacking luster...which makes me think "cabinet friction" as opposed to actual wear. TPGs usually doc this on an MS grade, but not to the point of making circulated.

The reverse though looks fully lustrous on the fields and devices....so I give obverse MS61 and reverse MS63...net ms62.

I would not be shocked if it were in an UNC details cleaned slab either for the heavy dip job.

I'll say MS64 nice coin. Not sure how you can ever tell if something has been dipped.

PCGS called it UNC details cleaned. Proof is shown below. I can't see it. How does a coin with a full (and proper) cartwheel get called cleaned. What isn't cleaned then? How do I know it's been dipped? If it had a shine that strong at a VF grade, sure, but why would a generally mark free BU piece not have some shine? No toning maybe, but I've seen that before, even on very old coins.

The detail is actually stronger in hand. I can't take a very good pic through a slab. Any coin area (like liberty's head) that appears darker in the photo has much greater detail. I graded it MS-63 with a shot at MS-64. I think I got screwed.

One poster in another thread made a very interesting point that PCGS "prices" coin and doesn't "grade" them. This was in response to seeing a very rare coin I had (with fairly obvious cleaning IMO) get graded normal because PCGS thought it should get valued as such in the market. If this were true, why has PCGS valued this coin to an AU.

This coin was probably going to be for sale, but since people are going to value the plastic, it's probably worth $150 now. I see a gorgeous MS-63 and there is no way I would part with this coin for 150, so I'm probably going to keep it.

Comments? Answers to how this gets details?

I have no idea how they determine something has been cleaned when it has full cartwheel luster. I've seen a lot of coins that have been over-dipped to the point that they are dull and lack any hint of cartwheel. At that point it's a no brain-er. This, however, must be the grader's guess because of the lack of any toning.

If "UNC" means MS60, I agree that you got 'done'. This coin is a better grade than MS60. I said 'MS63'.

I will concede that the slab grader had this piece 'in hand' under a standard 10x loupe, and so is in a better position to grade it than we are by looking at posted pictures of it in the slab.

I agree that it can be rather difficult for us to see a posted picture of a coin in a slab, and definitely decide if if it has been cleaned or not.
Many different lighting factors are involved.

This is a good example why I am not keen on slabbed coins.
I prefer to grade for myself.
Then again, I have never attempted to sell a coin out of my collection, so TPG is unnecessary for me.

The hairlines are why I said AU but if they determined them to be from a cleaning and not light circulation, then it is indeed a code 92.