Well, it is true that your 1907d Barber half is much better than a lot of its contemporaries, so maybe it’s natural to exaggerate some.
But just to help, next time, maybe I could offer a couple of practical tips about the way the American coin-hobby grades Barber halves (and quarters, and dimes).
LIBERTY on the portrait’s headband is the key. On most survivors, LIBERTY is completely or almost completely obliterated. These coins grade G or less.
To reach the grade of VG, at least 3 letters of the motto must be visible—usually LI Y. (And generally speaking, at least two full letters and two half-letters will also do for VG.)
To reach F,
all letters of LIBERTY must be clearly visible. The BER can be weak, but must be clearly visible.
To reach VF, all letters of LIBERTY must be
strongly visible.
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It’s an effective way to classify these coins,
but like most grading conventions that rely heavily on some small part of coin rather than its entirety, some of the results can be…less than satisfying.
As presented in your photos, your 1907d is a nice VG or a VG+ (all day, every day—3 or 3.5 letters of LIBERTY visible).
But here is a 1909o that goes F (no doubt about all of LIBERTY being visible):
http://www.numismatikforum.de/viewtopic ... 25&t=52579
The thing is, even ignoring its superior color, I think your VG+ 1907d is a better coin than this F 1909o (which in its entirety I personally regard as a VG.)
I think maybe I have a VF. I’ll look, and if I do I’ll try to post it for comparison.
v.
v.
