Owner Comments:
Name: Ice Blue Cool
Mintage: 4.1 Million
Full Step Availability: 2%
Date/mm: Mint state coins are plentiful but most are weakly struck from tired dies and full step coins are rare.
Coin Description:
Both sides of this minimally abraded premium gem are enveloped by a stunningly beautiful patina of lemon-lime, ice blue, lilac, and bright gold. In addition, the strike is hammered and the luster is shimmering.
Comments:
What holds this coin back from MS67 is beyond me. This is both an upgrade candidate and a crossover candidate to NGC. It is almost a certainty that this coin would grade MS67 by NGC and the star designation is also a "no brainer". I have had so much trouble with the 1938-S that the addition of this coin to my collection gives me much relief.
My first two coins that held this spot were both very attractive untoned MS66 NGC examples. In February 2011, I finally was able to capture an MS67 example which now resides in my duplicates collection. Unfortunately that coin lacked the flare and eye appeal that I expect for my collection and quite honestly was overgraded despite the fact that it resided in an NGC 3 generation holder. When I located this coin in a Teletrade auction the week before Christmas, I knew my search was over. I placed an extremely strong bid of 5X PCGS price guide and prayed that it would hold up. To my surprise, it sold for less than 3X and the coin was mine. I would like to give a shout out to jonthecoinjunky who was the consignor of this coin and currently holds the 35th spot in the registry. Many thanks Jon, I know it was hard to let go of such a beautiful coin.
This is not the first time that I have replaced a higher graded coin with a lower graded coin in my registry collection. And although I dropped from 288 points to 37 points, I firmly believe that when I cross the coin to NGC, it will come back with either an MS66+* or MS67* grade yielding 204 or 605 points respectively. Either way, this is by far the most attractive 1938-S Jefferson that I have ever seen and is a permanent resident in my registry collection.