welcome to grading 101 introduction to grading another in our series of educational webinars today we're going to talk about strike how it affects the grade of a coin what we look for and best things for you to be aware of we'll start by taking a look at two buffalo nickels the coin on the left is obviously a very sharp strike very full and the coin on the right believe it or not while it's uncirculated looks well worn most of the details are very mushy and unclear so let's take a look at the various strikes that you'll find on a buffalo nickel and we'll see go from weak to good this first one is what we consider a poor strike you see it's exceptionally weak and mushy many details are missing entirely you can barely see the horn here the tail here is almost completely flat and almost no hair appears on the Buffalo the eye is almost gone it's just has the appearance of a coin in about very good or fine condition but as you can see by the luster the coin is uncirculated next up the ladder is what we would call just simply a weak strike it's much better than the last one you've seen a little bit of hair on the buffalos head a little bit more on the back tiny bit on the legs but it's still pretty soft you don't see much of an eye here and even though there's a few hair details most of it is still pretty flat you can see up along the lettering up here it looks like it's been worn a little bit but again this is an uncirculated coin as you can see by the color and luster this third one is what we would call an average strike again you've got a good full horn here now you've got some hair detail some hair on the back of the Buffalo here a little bit on the legs this is again pretty typical for a buffalo nickel this would be unremarkable law in terms of striking you wouldn't say it's great but you wouldn't say it's soft here's a good strike as you can see by the good strike that hair detail is very sharp on the upper back you see some quite a bit of hair on the leg quite a bit on the head a nice sharp eye good tip on the horn some detail and the beard overall this is well above average a little bit of softness on the very highest points but this is a very well struck point and finally we have a full strike all details even at the very highest points are sharp you can see the intricate hair detail on the head on the back on the legs on the chin of the buffalo here you see a full split tail here this is all the detail that was ever put on a buffalo nickel is showing up on the back of this coin obviously your lettering your rims are extremely sharp as a general rule strike will impact the grading of the coin as follows a poorly struck coin the first coin that we saw in each of these series really cannot get a grade higher than 63 and most likely will grade in the 60 to 62 range regardless of the other factors a strike that week is just quite undesirable to collectors and in terms of the market evaluation of the coin it's just not going to ever bring much more than M s63 money at best a weak strike will top out about mint state 64 most will fall in the 62 or 63 range an average strike can really be no not much higher than a 65 again most coins will be in the 62 to 64 range depending on other factors a well struck coin can grade all the way up to mint state 69 and may boost a coin if on the borderline between two grades but for grades of 66 or higher we do need to see a well struck poin and finally a fully struck coin obviously has no upper limit to the grade and certainly can add a point to the grade in some cases where the strike is truly spectacular one of the most difficult things to be aware of in grading for especially for novices is differentiating strike from where the areas with no detail on a coin that is circulated Warren will usually be very flat usually a gray or whitish color and have no luster the areas without detail on a poorly struck but uncirculated coin will be more rounded looking and will have luster over them matching the rest of the coin so let's take a look at a couple of examples here are two buffalo nickels one is in fine condition on the left the other one is mint State now you'll note on the mint state coin the uncirculated coin the areas are rounded with luster that sort of matches the rest of the coin if you go over to the circulated coin you'll see the same smooth areas but there's sort of a whitish gray looking and they're completely flat can also see some tiny fine lines sort of across the coin obviously indicating being spent or rubbed with other coins whereas there are none on this coin this is an exceptionally soft coin here on the right it is uncirculated but as you can see the amount of detail on the two coins is roughly the same these were dramatic examples obviously to illustrate the point most of your Ware versus strike issues will show up between a you or about uncirculated in mint state coins and will be far more subtle but the principles are the same look for flatness and a lack of luster to indicate where and look for roundness and luster to indicate a weak strike and we hope now you've learned a little something about strike on coins thank you for watching you