IMO, the NGC forum is beyond help. VERY DEAD. There are some smart posters wasting their time over there. I offered to help their forum and made some suggestions but nothing has changed. Such a waist of a potential resource. Also, I'm sorry to read that many of you are not active posters on CU. Sure the place is muzzled tightly but...
I let this slide back then, but no longer. A secret ?? Horse Puckey !!! This aint no secret - it's absolute proof, in black and white that they changed their grading standards, and changed them drastically ! And in their very own words. You got anybody else you want to try and get to believe this nonsense ? "The truth is that they don’t change their standards and the perceived inconsistency is a result of expanded market grading principles (eg roll friction & toning) and the inherent subjectivity in grading."
It seems they banned some that would have hateful, smart Alec comments to others posts. Don’t miss them.
@Johndoe2000$ Link to the Jerry Springer show: https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1025693/potted-plants and another: https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1025765/have-slabs-ever-been-pressure-tested The Manbaby that complained to the Lunch Lady likely got Dimeman banned.
Wow !!! They went from 0 (0 !!) to 4,325 in the MS70 bucket in 3 years ? They didn't have ANY MS70's before 2003 even for moderns ? That's hard to believe.
On 2nd look....the increase from 21 to 106,921 in the MS69 bucket is clearly all moderns. My guess is the lower grades are comparable because no flood of moderns is going for less than MS68.
Depends on how you want to define moderns. With most denominations, going clear back Buffalo nickel days, 68s, 69s and 70s appeared where none existed before. What I'm telling you is that the grades changed drastically across the board, from G to 70 and across all denominations and all dates. Now did all the older coins suddenly appear in 69 and 70 ? No, but some did. But the other grades that never existed before with the older coins - they did appear. And in huge numbers relatively speaking.
ASE's and American Eagles and their like. Stuff produced in recent years/decades not stuff from pre-1960, generally. There must be a record of PCGS and NGC doing how many bullion coins producted that year since they both came into existence in the 1980's. I'll bet they did very few in the early years and it's increased exponentially since.
The existence of the 70 grade for ASE's was the result of a policy change regarding milk spots, and perhaps a revenue hit as NGC was handing out 70's
NGC was the last major TPGS to even use the 70 grade for any coin. Furthermore, when you grade SE with only your eyeballs, lots of 70's and 69's from any service won't stand up to the ANA standards or mine. As for the Bust half, My question was not fully answered but I will agree with Lehigh. I see an AU-55 or 58 with a gouged obverse for that coin. I have seen this coin posted before once or twice besides on this thread. Perhaps, someone keeps the image around to make a point using this one particular MISTAKE by the TPGS.
For years PCGS refused to give ASE's a 70 grade due to Milk spot issues, IIRC. NGC at the same time was giving 70's. When they changed their policy, the pops with 70's dramatically went up. Not sure of the reference to NGC being last?
As for the MS/PR-70 grade. These coins have always existed - even back in the 1960's there were perfect coins (by today's standards) being made. The grade was not used. There were perfect 1986 SE also, but the grade was not used at that time either. Therefore, IMO, the increase of 69's and 70's is not a very good indication of standards changing EXCEPT to say new grade fields were opened up and filled. Just as once there was no AU grade either. Now, many AU's are considered MS. THAT IS A SIGNIFICANT CHANGE.
I started grading at NGC in 1998. They did not use the grade of 70 at all. I don't remember what year after that it was added to their grading system.
I found it interesting that they stopped publishing that booklet after 2006. I kinda wanted to make a library of them so that I could make a “population over time” spreadsheet.