1945 Newfoundland Five Cent Help

One of the key surface detail on the GeoVI Newfoundland coins is the lowest band on the crown which is meant to be the crown's ermine lining. In the original design there are four little diamond shapes along that band. They are quite subtle and they are typically one of the first things to go with any wear or in a weaker strike.

I don't see them on this coin but they're actually hard to photograph. Here's an example - a penny so sort of apples and oranges - but it shows the pattern. Point is, if everything else looks good, check out those little diamonds as they're often the thing that separates great from good.

The pictures are too saturated or something but to me the surfaces look....odd. I don't know if it's from a heavy dip or some cleaning or something but it looks a little off. Could totally just be the pictures though. At first glance it appears to be MS, but for some reason the reverse feels more like AU to me but I honestly can't point to anything specific. After looking for a while I also feel like it might detail for something, but I can't clearly define what. lol. So I'm more like AU details as a guess, but it could just as easily be a straight grade MS if the pictures are making it look funny and it's just fine. Clear as mud? :)

There's a theory out there - Hugh Powell I think - that some of the ww2 era NFLD silver was in fact compromised by impurities. Maybe war time frugality or something? It might be worth weighing them accurately to see whether they behave as silver at the expected purity level?

AU something but better photos needed.