If you buy a coin from the Mint is it MS - 70

I have some coins right from the mint in a airtight seal. Does that mean it is MS - 70? How are coins MS-69 even though they were not taken out or dropped etc.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Some coins are made better than others , plus there is some human handling in manufacture to packing . So if there is a slight blemish it lowers it to a 69 or lower . Not all coins are MS-70s .

 

No. MS-70 essentially means a perfect coin with no marks or defects. A coin must have no contact marks (or other marks) to be graded MS-70.

Contact marks, for one.

 

simply put- the mint do a poor job and make defective coins

 

That's not fair to the mint. It is TPG who set grading criteria. What a TPG calls a 69 or 68 is WELL within the tolerances of the mints production. Who the heck gave a TPG the right to dictate to the mint what their production tolerances are?

Basically Tristen the mint makes as good a product as they can afford to. Later a collector or TPG will grade these coins. In prior years almost no coins would have left the mint as a 70, most being 66-69. I think the US mint has done a great job improving their quality on collector coins. For business strikes they simply cannot afford to take the care, so most leave the mint from 66-68.

You guys are lucky. I collect ancients. Many ancient coins left the mint as a VF. To be fair, we grade only on details, and do not say a coin is "uncirculated" if it had a soft strike, worn die, etc etc like the excuses US collectors give their coins.

Chris

 

The production, and handling by Mint employees, is not perfect by any means, and certainly anything made these days at the Mint is not a guaranteed 70.

However, it should be no less than a 69, and definitely one can expect it to be DCAM/UCAM.

 

The mint doesn't grade their coins coming out of production either. I'm pretty sure most of the employees couldn't tell the difference between a 69 and 70 either nor do they care, they get paid either way.

 

I am sure a lot of us can not tell the difference between 69 and 70.

 

I would say 69 to 70 might be easier than 68 to 69, but I agree with your point.

Have a like.

 

And I understand what you are saying. I will clarify:

For ancient collectors we do not make a differentiation as to whether the coin is as it was the day it left the mint. We do not even worry about it. Since so many things can go wrong with hand striking, a perfect specimen is a rarity, not expected. Therefor, we simply grade based upon the level of perfection the coin could have been. If a coin left the mint as a weakly struck, offcenter coin, even if the coin was struck today the best grade we would give it would be VF.

Contrast that with US coinage. Since we strike with machines, we expect near perfection. Therefor, each coin is labelled as uncirculated the day it leaves the mint. If there are details missing due to weak strike or worn dies, its still uncirculated, its just these causes for missing detail are noted. If its an offcenter strike, since they are so rare, they are called erros and their value usually is higher than a properly struck coin.

Basically US collectors accept perfection as "normal". Ancient collectors are shocked if we ever see perfection. They are just two completely different grading systems with different assumptions made. Personally I like my grading system better than the US one, as I think they made a serious error when they said a weakly struck coin is still BU, but that happened long ago and probably unchangable now.

Chris

 

I have had to send back every spouse coin that I purchased in 2011-some of them twice- If you have not noticed the decline in quality you have not been buying much from them.

 

Well, I bought a bunch of stuff on the secondary market from the 70's and early 80's. That is my baseline sir, and I don't think the overall quality of those coins are near the quality I recieved with my 5 2011 Anniversary sets. That is the comparison I see, and was commenting on sir.

 

A mint is essentially a factory when it comes to business strike coinage, a grade of MS-60 is acceptable on production.

Proofs and such should be more like at a "69" level.

 

A mint is essentially a factory when it comes to business strike coinage, a grade of MS-60 is acceptable on production.

Proofs and such should be more like at a "69" level.

 

I thought I was seening doubles there for a second

 

You're right Tyler. There's definitely an echo in here......

To OP Tristen.....The coins that come from the mint in original government packaging don't necessarily designate at a '70 grade. Or a '69 or '68 for that mater. That's for the "third party" folks to determine, but rest assured, your coins are 'mint state"......

 

the eagle sets are different-I agree that those were far better than any product that the mint has ever produced

 

Good to know. Just explaining my viewpoint that the mint has gotten much better than in the past. Your post seems to validate that view.