Need Help Here For A Grading Question, And A 1944-S Walking Liberty Grading

Regular old wear, weak strike, grease-filling, and worn dies, can all appear superficially similar, in that all can cause the high points of a coin to lose detail. There is a key difference, however: wear will destroy or disrupt the lustre, while weak strike, worn dies and grease-filling retain lustre. Wear might also mainfest itself as a different colour to the toning.

Your 1944 half dollar has all the hallmarks of actual, honest-to-goodness wear.

Of course, it is entirely possible for a coin struck with worn dies to then enter circulation and receive a bucketload of actual wear. In which case, in terms of grading, it's usually all lumped together and graded as if all the missing detail is due to wear.

For XF grades and higher, I primarily grade by mint luster. Fully lusterous surfaces show a lack of wear, whereas a lack of luster would show there is a degree wear. Strike weakness is not considered a primary grading point in my opinion. For example, an Unc coin with XF strike detail does not mean it is XF. But it may downgrade the coin to low MS. Therefore strike weakness can be ignored for the first step of grading. Practice allows you to discern the difference between strike weakness and wear.

XF40