The more I look at that card, the more I question whether there was some light staining that contained material that reacted to being in the holder. The upper right-hand corner area shows some discoloration that is not typical of the card in its natural aging process. Perhaps that type of discoloration existed in the areas that now exhibit paper loss. I say that because if you disregard the paper loss, that card is mighty strong for a grade of 5-- I would grade it 6 or 6.5 with those corners and edges, and have seen weak 7s that look about like that. So either the grader was being particularly harsh in knocking it down to a 5, or there were some discoloration issues that justified the grade reduction (clearly if he saw paper loss the card would have received a 1 or 1.5, at least technically). My two cents.
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If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other. - Ulysses S. Grant, military commander, 18th US President.
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