AU53--A "Dumb" Grade?

I was talking to a major kingpin in the coin industry today who said that he considers AU53 an unnecessary grade, dumb, a grade that even the TPGs don't agree on. Anyone have thoughts on this?

 

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I think the grade AU53 is only used for very valuable coins where the difference in value between 50 and 55 is significant. I have not seen too many lower value coins graded AU53.

 

There are a lot of better date gold coins where that "53" makes at least a several hundred dollar difference. Many $20 coins throughout the series from 1850 and on become a lot more valuable in 53 over the 50 grade. So that is a point well made. But someday we may see all the grades filled in from 50 and above. We have consecutive numbers from 60 on.

 

Why don't we have AU50, AU54 (mix between 53 and 55) and AU58? Maybe even AU62???

 

I think it's dumb we don't use ALL the numbers from 0-70 like the Sheldon scale was designed for.

 

You might be correct for a lot of the later coins (1900's), but just a quick look show a couple early 1/2 cents where 50 - 53 AND 53 - 55 made a $5,000 and $10,000 difference. I don't know about you, but I do not think $5,000 is dumb!

 

Outside of the price difference, I've seen a lot of coins that merit just a hair over a 50 but not a 55. so the 53 grade makes sense to me....at least in the context of Lincolns.

 

I think the use of it was around before we were and will still be in use when we arn't.

 

You may have noticed a lack of consistency in the count of grades used per letter designation. Perhaps we should think of AU-50 as EF-50 instead?

VF-20, VF-25, VF-30, VF-35
EF-40, EF-45
AU-50, AU-53, AU-55, AU-58

The two coins I have in AU-53 slabs are both collector coins -- A 1770 Pillar Dollar (ANACS) and an 1883 Hawaiian Half (PCGS).

 

As it was explained in something I read a while back, the AU grading scale is sort of a parallel to the MS grading scale. For example: A coin that has an overall eye appeal similar to MS60 but shows a hint of circulation wear gets AU50. One with eye appeal similar to MS65 but having light circulation wear might merit AU55 and on it goes up to AU58. Nobody seems to have split the AU designation fine enough to grade coins in AU51, 54, 57 or 59 yet. BTW the Sheldon scale was originally intended for use in determining the value of early large cents. Each grade assigned a multiplying factor times the face value of the cent and that assigned it's value to the collector market. Of course it has since been applied to grading any coin from any country.

 

We do have AU58.

 

I know

 

He was suggesting that we eliminate 53 & 55 and create one solitary grade instead... AU-54. Au-54 would be an addition to 50, and 58.

 

I usually figure the difference between a 50 and 53 is luster rather than wear. Correctly graded 50's are borderline. 53's seem much nicer. But I'm no expert.

Maybe a better question is, do we really need 11 grades, 60 to 70?
Lance.

 

Thanks Doug for that. You have been tireless as an excellent moderator on this board!

My solution on how this issue could be resolved would be to examine a couple hundred AU50, 53, and 55 coins from various series and see if the 53 fits into a definite quality continuum or could be replaced.

For examples, possibly the $20 Liberty series could be selected. Heritage has many of those in various dates. To me a "53" is like a 50 that has some additional luster, less marks, less friction, etc..

Here are some examples:

http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=1166&lotNo=6621

http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=1153&lotNo=4896

http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=1154&lotNo=6769

http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=1154&lotNo=6768

And 50s:

http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=1158&lotNo=5782

http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=1128&lotNo=2662

http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=1151&lotNo=7202


Clearly there are some undergraded coins. People do not want to re-submit if they have a choice; shipping, in grading for a month, the arrival back hopefully with an upgrade and then the auction or selling process...

 

Holey Shamoley Doug!

You ARE old!

 

It is tough to respond to that considering we don't know exactly what he said and what context it was in. In certain series, all of the AU grades are essentially unimportant. But I will go out on a limb and state that most Bust Half collectors will strongly disagree with your kingpin, and rightly so!