1927-S Lincoln Cent - Grade It!

Very nice AU 55 BN, Weak strike but it has very attractive luster, with only slight amounts of wear on the high points judging by what looks like breaks in luster.

Overall a very attractive coin, save for a little bit of verdegris, probably a good verdi-care treatment candidate

It's definitely AU, but like T BOP, the obverse looks too shiny or buffed to me too. Could have been a simple cotton cloth wipe?
Pretty coin though, I like the reverse.

My first thought was AU-58. I am unsure about any slight cleaning attempts, though.

It looks nice to me.

AU-58

AU-58, superb for this date/MM.

Thad, I knew you'd come through.

At first, Ed said it's Unc, but I said AU. I was not yet intimate with the typical best examples of 1927-S Lincoln, however. While I studied Hi-res photos of MS grades, Ed studied the coin with a Hi-mag loupe. We later both saw each other's side on this, which has complicated things a bit. It is definitely not cleaned or any of those things. The surfaces seem "lackluster," but so do most MS BN versions, so.. golly..

This is what I told him: check for die flow lines in the recesses of the rim, and at the recesses where Lincoln's head meets the fields. Then follow the texture all the way between, and look for breaks in the texture. The luster breaks you see in the photos on the cheekbone and the temple are true; however, the die flow lines in the fields do CERTAINLY run all the way across the fields between Lincoln's head and the rims without interruption. The surfaces do seem quite smooth in general as the photos suggest, which is the reason I quickly dismissed this coin (and therefore triggered an investigation). I must admit that one thing I did first notice is how, in spite of the smoothness I first noticed in-hand, there is the presence of cartwheels. It's weird.

Assuming I've been paying attention in class: in spite of the high-point luster breaks, as long as the texture across all fields are unbroken this coin still qualifies for an MS grade, right?

No cleaning here...looks like authentic luster to me of a normal BN coin.


AU-55 or AU-58. AU-58 BN more than likely, but I'm going to keep AU-55 in the air because even though I know these were weak strikes, knowing how TPG's go sometimes, the ear is kinda my suspicious that there might be just a bit more wear than an AU-58 coin would show off. Even though the reverse looks solid to me.