When reading grading standards criteria I occasionally
bump into a statement saying ninety-five percent of the
detail in the devices must be struck into the coin. This
has caused me some confusion in grading such things as
SHQ and Kennedy halves.

In the case of the Statehood Quarters, I find that the
shoddy striking pressure and poor coin design nearly
always make the name of the state and E Pluribus Unum
are never fully filled in with metal. This has caused
me to throw out a lot of stunning beauties for the
first year until I figured that it couldn't be helped.
Nowadays I have rolls of SHQ's in storage that have
this deficency (otherwise the quarters look pretty good).
Trouble is, There is a CEILING to how high these coins
would grade...I'm supposing that it would be MS-65.
If it's less than that, then I'm in the wrong vocation.

Trouble with the kennedy's is that I can find recent
issue halves that look fully stuck except for the
pesky "T" at the end of In God We Trust. Most coin
merchants have no problem selling these coins as
near supergrade, but I can't help but notice the flaw.
One time I went thru 20 1998-d kennedy's and found
just one that had a fully struck "T"

Here's my question: How high (resonably) can such
described coins be graded? Please let me know.