I just realised this one is somewhat rare so I thought I'm might as well have you guys help me grade it.
What do you think? I have my own guess but I'd rather not make a fool of myself by revealing it.
Also would it be okay if I swap the catalogue pictures for these ones? Let me know what you guys think.
Obverse : Libertas fully defined, the hair behind the ear is the easiest place to look apart from that. In the example above it's pretty worn, hence weak VF. If it was EF you would expect to see each strand of hair. A F coin would have a very weakly defined "Libertas" in the headband.
Reverse: It's much harder to grade the reverse because of the design so in the absence of any major flaws or damage I'm pretty much content to let the obv. decide the grade. It pretty much comes down to overall eye appeal and how well formed the small flowers in the wreath are.
I collect Swiss coins but I'm much more comfortable grading Victorian copper. I'm sure there are more exact points of wear used by more experienced graders than I.
Non illegitimis carborundum est. Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!
The coin on eBay as F at best, the lettering on the headband is almost unreadable. Even the "20" denomination of the reverse is starting to fade. If someone insists it's VG I wouldn't argue with them.
Fot at least 50 years, both the + & - signs have been used by collectors. Alternatively, "G" has been used instead of the + and "A" or "N" instead of the minus sign. (these stand for, Good, Almost and Nearly, for example GVF can be used instead of VF+) In recent times the negative A, N & - have fallen into disuse. That actually makes sense because having both a GF or F+ and an AVF is redundant.
I think PCGS are being disengenous. They are the leading advocates of the half-arsed Sheldon Scale, the idea of which is that you can assign an exact numerical value from 1 - 70 but it was never implemted fully so you find huge jumps from F12 upwards. If you are not going to use it's biggest strength, why not just stick with the descriptive scale? The answer is that they have a vested interest in making grading look too hard for the average collector - caaaachiiing!
Don't TPGs use a star (*) symbol for coins with eye appeal anyway?
Resist the orthodoxy brothers, fight the Sheldon Scale!
Non illegitimis carborundum est. Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!
"The word 'Good' used to describe a coin under the British grading system is usually an indication that it is at the higher end of its grading classification, e.g. a 'Good Fine' coin will be in a better condition than a coin that is merely 'Fine'."
Non illegitimis carborundum est. Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!
There is certainly F+ and -F with most if not all UK coin dealers. Unlike the US, the UK grades would have two gradings between VG, F, VF, XF, and UNC instead of using number as done so in the US for instance VG12 or VF20 etc.
