Okay, so I know there has been a million threads on grading companies, but I think my question is a little different. I have an 1879 s PAF reverse morgan dollar. I am confident it will grade a 64 DMPL by pcgs. However, if I sent it to ANACS, I am confident it will easily get a UDM designation, and should grade a 64 there as well. PCGS always brings a premium over anacs it seems, however, since anacs will give my coin a UDM designation, for resale purposes, do you think that would bring a higher premium?
I would almost bet that ANACS would be harder on that coin that PCGS would. If your looking for resale....go PCGS. Each grading Co. has their good points and bad points....let me list the ones I see... PCGS---harder on modern coins to some point...but loose on other coins in higher grades---also tends to sometimes overgrades Key Date coins (but that is somewhat true with all of the Co's.) NGC---Hard on coins with FSB/FBL/FH/and the like....looser on modern coins...harder IMHO on PF Franklins than PCGS--they seem to be the best on Morgans. ANACS---Hard on PF and MS70's...hard on cleaning and older coins....hard on Jefferson Nickels and Franklin halves.... ICG---Loose on almost all modern....older coins they are OK...most of their coins are OK... PCI---some are ok....but I suggest that you always grade the coin yourself....and never trust the slab....I do think they are pretty good on finding the fakes so I trust them that way. Speedy
I know that anacs would definitely be harder on it, I think PCGS would give it a 65, and I think anacs a 64, maybe a 65. It's a very clean coin, I'd post pictures, but it's currently at my mom's house, so I won't pick it up till this weekend (I've seen it in hand).
I think ANACS will be more likely to be harder on the CAMEO and DCAME and UCAME and not the grade---they seem like on CAMEO they are hard...don't ask me why Speedy
I know they are much much harder it seems on these designations. I read that at ANACS, if a morgan dollar has such deep mirrors, that type can be seen 12 inches away, they give it an ultra deep mirror designation. I can easily see type in this coin, so far away, that the only thing preventing me reading the type from the coin, is the size of the letter. I showed it to a dealer, and he called it a high beam? I'm not sure what he meant by that, and in retrospect should have asked him, but he was busy at the moment.
I'd personally prefer an ANACS MS-69 over a PCGS MS-70 any day. There are more of the latter available by the way... Bone
Good summary Speedy. Zaneman, can we see a picture of the coin in question, or maybe you've posted it in another thread? Just a comment, I personally will not buy any MS70 coins. My reasoning is that I can take any coin and if I look at it long enough find something wrong with it. I'd much rather buy an MS69 coin, make sure myself that it's actually worthy of an MS69 grade, pay half the price of an MS70 (not uncommon for modern coins) and call it a day.
