Chance At Getting 5 FS On This 65 Nickel?

Nope, I don't think so. I don't see full completion of the steps, so I say it isn't a Full Step Nickel.

I've sent in several 1960s nickels to PCGS. What will hurt your chances is the far left side of your steps, the lines don't go all the way to the edge. And there is a lot of bridging going on between your lower steps. I've read on other forums and it seems to be a heated topic on what is truly full steps. The grading services count steps as if you are walking them down, starting at the very top where the door is. If I walk your steps down, I stepped 5 times as the bottom most line counts as you stepped over it. So, that is 5 steps. I think they might cut you some slack on the far left lines not going all the way to the edge but that bridging on the 3rd step is what will hurt your chances.

Some of the debates I've seen included hard-core coin guys who also appear to have a degree in architecture as they had referenced photos to the actual steps of Monticello where there is a grass lawn up at the top, below the door. Regardless, it is the bed the grading services made for themselves on how they chose to grade these things and as long as their grading remains consistent over the years and hasn't changed, what they choose to be 5FS or 6FS is what it is.

The big problem I see is that regardless of your getting lucky with a designation of FS or not, the day you go to sell it, the buyers may not be so enthused to bid on your nickel. Most all of the auction site photos are from a camera view dead overtop of the coin. If it doesn't look like a well defined FS nickel at that angle, you're probably not going to get big dollars for it.

With all that being said, if it were me and I had that nickel, I'd send it in anyway. Your date is 1965 which puts you right at the base of PCGS "modern" service at $16. If you don't get FS, your cost was only $16 +shipping. If you do get FS and they feel it's a high priced nickel, well, it hasn't happened to me yet but they are supposed to invoice you for 1% of price guide value as you had opted for the lowest priced grading service which only covers up to $300 in book value. BTW -- I have two 1965 nickels (1 regular strike and 1 SMS) at PCGS right now, expecting to know something by the end of next week.

Good luck!

Agree.



to the CCF!

The reason I was thinking it would be a good idea to send it in is because of the examples I compared it to from PCGS. A lot of the photos I looked at In their website confused me more than I already am lol. I mean some of them just don't seem anything close to being full steps imo. I took some screenshots of a few them, I'll post them here if anyone cares to see what I'm talking about..

I wouldn't call any of those full steps.

When I go to the PCGS examples, I wonder how people collect these. Seems like there is no constancy of them. I get up trying. Same way on Bell lines on Franklin halves. Just don't care...

My PCGS grades are in. I should have the coins in hand probably on Friday. But Wow. I tanked on my 1960's "FS" nickels. I knew my 1960D was not FS but sent it in anyway. Based on other nickels I had previously graded, I was 96% sure what I sent were going to be FS. At least my estimated MS64 grade came in correct so I'm happy about that -- not for the value but for my ability to grade nickels is getting better.

My 1965 Nickel steps were more clearly defined than what you have in your photo, I didn't get FS. I'll take a photo of it over the weekend so you can compare what just got rejected.

In the chart below, under description "5C" are nickels.