Struck-Through Error On Silver Eagle

Must be a strike-through if PCGS graded it that...

It looks like there is evidence of it continuing onto the rim so I'd say it's a scratch. Unfortunately it may have been scratched while getting in the holder.

-CH27

PCGS graded it SP-70 The label does not reflect a Strike through. It look's more like a scratch than anything else. Good example of buy the coin, not the slab

The reflective area of the long mark makes me think that it is a strike through. Does the shorter mark catch the light in the same way? I've see the same kind of error on American Silver Eagles caused by fibers from material used to wipe down the dies.

I have a pair of 1992 ASEs that are "Struck Thru." One has massive toning that developed in the ANACS slab over the last 29 years. Here's a link if you'd like to see this them. http://goccf.com/t/358464

The owner of ACE coin in Hagerstown, MD answered this for me a few years back. He told me he is totally convinced that when monster boxes get sent in that the grading services just take out 20% off of the top and put them into MS70 slabs.
It started when he kept getting the same number f MS70s out of each box. He said he spent some time questioning all his dealer friends who sent in monster boxes like he did. He took polls at coin shows. The number was always 20%.
This 20% consistency is just too big a coincidence to think they actually take the time to grade every coin in a monster box.
Let's face it, there are a lot of people who just chase the MS70 label on ASEs, and few bother to check the coin.
It was after the owner telling me this, and encouraging me to start checking MS 70 slabs, that I started to suspect the grading companies are not all they want us to think they are. Since that time, the more I research, the less and less I see these companies as anything but a major money making business at the expense of the collectors.
http://goccf.com/t/346174#2967242
http://goccf.com/t/130186
Yours is just another example of what a lot of people come to find out when they start looking.

One more thing to add to this is I defy anyone to show an actual consistent difference between an MS69 and MS70 ASE (or any other coin). Considering any coin broken out and resubmitted to the SAME company is never guaranteed the same grade again....why shouldn't they not just scoop 20% off the top of a monster box? They can keep the percentages of MS70 slabs to a constant supply to keep prices up, the grade on the slab is not guaranteed (read the actual guarantee if you doubt this), and there is no scientific standard used to grade...so the grade is subjective anyway.

BTW - make sure you do all the math, shipping etc. if you plan on using the PCGS guarantee. The ending costs to the owner don't make it as peachy as it seems.

In the begin of my life, before university I was goldsmith. Past also the master exams: so I can say very clear that scratch is the consequences of a sharp thing. It is not a dye., has not the mark of graving tools or deteriorating dye. It is very thin due to a very sharp tools or blade.

Thanks, everyone, for your input! At this point, I'm thinking something got caught in there during the minting process such as a fiber as was proposed by Yokozuna. There's some definite dimensionality to the mark, as was pointed out about the way the light falls on the mark. I can only agree with Earle42's suggestion that this eagle is among the 20% that just get put into holders without careful inspection. My first thought was to return it to the dealer, but then I realized it was kind of cool if not as an error, then as a curious error in grading.