Posted 08/28/2015 9:11 pm
You can't really be certain a high grade quarter of '65 to '67 didn't come from a mint set. Indeed, this problem has resulted in the grading services tending to call almost all high grades of these years SMS even when they're straight out of an original roll.
On the flip side if you have a lot of experience you can state with a very high degree of certainty whether a coin has the SMS "look" or not.
There are some high grade coins that are pretty obviously not SMS and these often reside in SMS holders. I'd suggest your best bet is to look for a very high grade that has a later die state. No SMS was struck after the dies had about 30,000 strikes so if it shows as much die wear as a 50,000th strike it won't be SMS no matter what the holder says. Try to learn the look and you'll find the right coin.
On the flip side if you have a lot of experience you can state with a very high degree of certainty whether a coin has the SMS "look" or not.
There are some high grade coins that are pretty obviously not SMS and these often reside in SMS holders. I'd suggest your best bet is to look for a very high grade that has a later die state. No SMS was struck after the dies had about 30,000 strikes so if it shows as much die wear as a 50,000th strike it won't be SMS no matter what the holder says. Try to learn the look and you'll find the right coin.
Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
