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But I am a bit confused about how you can tell the difference when you are looking at coin if what you are seeing is simply "wear" vs. a con that is a "weak strike".
One way I use to tell the difference is by looking at the high points. Both the first signs of wear and weak strike show up there. Wear looks like dark, dull, flat spots on the high points. Weak strike usually looks rounded as if the metal was trying the fill the void in the die but if really bad, they can look flat as well. The second way I use is to look at the amount of original luster. If the coin is missing details but has most or all of the original mint luster, then you most likely dealing with weak strike. Wear removes details and mint luster. Mentioned by Crazyb0, a weakly struck coin show signs on both sides because of Newton's 3rd law. If the hammer die applies insufficient pressure, then the anvil die must as well. It can get a bit complicated when you are dealing with a worn coin that also has signs of a weak strike. Determining how much of the missing details is due to wear or strike takes experience looking at many coins.
Here is an article written by PCGS on the topic:
https://www.PCGS.com/News/Strike-We...rading-Tips/ Quote:
And also, how does the 'strike' effect the "Grade" of the coin at all, as I had thought that the "Grade" was primarily based on a combination of surface wear/damage and original luster.
Weak strikes usually hurt the grade but the degree depends on what is typical for the coin. A weak strike on a coin that usually comes weak will hurt less than on one that usually comes sharp. From what I gather there seems to be two schools of thought regarding how to deal with a weak strike. One school takes a more grade limiting approach. For example a weakly struck coin cannot grade above MS-64 or 65 no matter what even if the coin would merit a much higher grade based on other factors. The other takes a more grade reduction approach. Sometimes a coin under this approach can grade higher than under the grade limiting approach if the coin has enough superior attributes to compensate for the weak strike.
Edited by D0ubl3Eagle
06/27/2017 10:55 pm
Posted 06/27/2017 1:03 pm
