CBC

EBay frequently offers sellers extra incenives to create new listings, like 50% off sellers fees for five new lstings. This offer only applies to the first listing period, not to relistings of expired listings. Maybe the seller had an eBay "deal" that only applied to the first listing period, and lowered his initial price accordingly.

I suspect IGS is another of those "graders" like Accugrade that just assign the grade the customer wants without even looking at the coin. EBay use to be littered with Accugrade MS-67's with obvious wear and XF-40's with the rims worn flat and partial dates.

(1). There is no such thing as a "correctly graded" gold-toned PF-70 coin as any toning disqualifies the coin from a 70 grade. (2) A "correctly graded" 1957 NGC PF-69 Jefferson nickel is currently listed on ebay at $144.95 Buy-it-now. (3) Many "correctly graded" 1957 NGC PF-68 Jefferson nickels are currently listed on ebay for $15. (4) There are exactly zero 1957 NGC PF-70 Jefferson nickels. Yours will certainly not be the first.

No presidents were on our coinage for the first 116 years of the Mint's history. Lincoln replaced the Indian on the cent in 1909. Washington showed up on the quarter in 1932, which was originally supposed to be a one-year commemorative issue but was adopted for good in 1934. The guidance for coin design in the late 1800's / early 1900's was to issue a new design for each denomination at approximately 25 year intervals. Liberty and Buffalo nickels, Barber dimes, quarters and halves, Mercury dimes, Standing Liberty quarters and Walking Liberty halves all roughly followed this practice, and made very collectible series with well-defined start and end points. I think a total re-do on our coinage would be a good thing. As great as Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington were, 80+ years on the same coin is too much.

Greedy sellers and ebay seem to be a good match. I see coins I'm looking for on ebay all the time at BIN prices that are 40% to 80% higher than market, with a "Make Offer" option. I can't count the number of reasonable offers I have made, only to get a counteroffer 2% lower than the BIN price. I don't even bother to respond to those counteroffers, and then watch the coin sit there, month after month, unsold.

I actually found the 1909 and 1909 VDB in circulation. Being on the east coast, S-mint coins were scarce, but I still managed to fill everything except the 1909-S, 1909-S VDB, 1914-D, 1922-D, 1922 No D and 1931-S from circulation. It helped that my grandfather had a huge jar he had thrown his "pennies" in for 20 years or more, and searching through those filled in most of the early dates. Those slots are still vacant.

I still have the Whitman folders (Lincoln wheat cents) that started my collecting obsession 58 years ago. I filled all but 6 slots from circulation - care to guess which ones?

The mint "manufactured a rarity" with the W Roosevelt dime in 1996 but did not repeat it after that. They do have a habit of overdoing everything (how many coins would it take to make a complete set of modern commemoratives?), and the Silver Eagle issues have gotten ridiculous. Here's hoping this W Lincoln is a one-time experiment as well.

My guess would be die damage, something like a die clash, where the obverse die was damaged from impact with either a misaligned reverse die or another coin. The curved depression runs through the fields but not Lincoln's hair, and distorts but does not obscure the i in Liberty.

Heritage doesn't usually accept consignments unless the total projected value of all the coins is $5,000 or more.

Congratulations and prayers for you all. Long days in the NICU are hard but the nurses there are the best. My granddaughter (three months old last week) came six weeks early and spent eight days in NICU.

What does the reverse side look like?

Looks like a raised line on the coin, which could be from a die gouge. Post-strike damage would be more likely to show up as a gouge in the coin.

There is no silver in any of these coins -the dime, quarter, half dollar and dollar are copper-nickel clad over a copper core. The copper-nickel will tone, not quite the same as the silver alloy in 1964 and earlier proof sets. This appears to be normal toning for clad proofs from the 70's.

I bought a Franklin half in a NGC holder a few years ago. The NGC label read "1952-S MS-64 FBL", and the dealer's listing included nice, sharp close-up photos of complete bell lines and a rather poor photo of the entire reverse. The mint mark was, of course, a "D" when it arrived. The dealer that sold it to me on line was quite embarrassed to get it back and vey quick to issue a refund.