1954 S LWC Please Grade And Identify Weak Strike Area Or Is Is LDS Weakness

I would say an easy 65. A 64 would have a mushy reverse.

Cool example! Nice die crack and die chip as others have pointed out. Color is also a plus, for me anyways. A number of the small shoulder marks and cheek/jaw marks look like planchet marks, rather than post mint. Some weakness there based on the flatness of the cheek bone and shoulder. MS65 RD for me.

(Im still not great with photos) As far as lighting, it's always tougher for me to photo the obverse on LWC. Try a second light source, but you'll have to play around with positioning and distance so you can still capture some depth with the relief in the devices. You can also just use one light source, but get it as high up and as close to the lens as you can. May have to play around with your camera settings with this one (shutter speed, iso, etc.)

All in all they look pretty good, just need a bit mire light in the shadowed areas. (Again, in certainly no expert with coin photography).

Definitely late die state obverse from the die cracks and chip. The reverse is MDS. I think the scuffs on Lincoln's cheek, jaw, and shoulder are just a little bit too prominent for anything over MS-65. Nice coin, though.

Thanks all for the input, much appreciated. Relative to the chatter on the bust, I recall reading in DQB's Cent Book that he said not to worry about the chatter on the bust? Suggested this was a planchet issue and not PMD. Thoughts?

Good strike. Not quite "full" but nearly so.

One light source is usually not enough to light a coin effectively. The classic configuration is 10 and 2, and this will do better than just one at 12. Your one light is also at too low an angle. The low angle accentuates small surface anomalies such as the minor chatter on the bust. Higher angle lighting will make the whole coin brighter, as will a second light, and will minimize the minor surface issues.

It also appears you're using a camera "picture style" that is not good for coins. There are many styles to choose from, but I highly recommend either "neutral" or "faithful". These are less "shopped" than the "standard" style. Within the picture style there are 4 subsettings: sharpness, contrast, saturation, and hue. To improve the conversion from raw to jpg (done by camera) I recommend reducing in-camera contrast. This improves the mapping of shadows so there is less post-processing required.

Still, the image is good "raw material" and can stand up to improvements using post processing. All the information is there to make it look fairly good. I took the liberty of making some levels adjustments to prove this point, see the adjusted image below.

This coin is a solid 66RD any day. The minor marks people are focusing on would not show up except for the particularly revealing lighting used by @shantiom. The prime focal areas of the fields in front of the face and above LIBERTY are completely clean.

I agree with MS65 RD. Might even get to MS66.