And that's a large part of the reason why so many people have such a hard time learning how to grade treehugger. They seen things like that published that have nothing to do with actual grading standards and even worse they are not even close to accurate.
Trying to learn how to grade based on pictures is a terrible idea Hunter. Unless you are using hundreds of pictures for each individual grade and for each individual coin.
Doug, instead of telling everyone what they shouldn't do, why don't you actually make a constructive suggestion on where they should start? And, saying that "you need to be old with 60+ years of grading" is not a constructive suggestion. The number of years one has been collecting has nothing to do with their ability to grade coins, as for all we know they have been doing it wrong for the whole time. Just a thought.
Doug, For some reason i cannot quote your message in a quick reply. I meant by my post that cross referencing text information about grades, and then comparing those to pictures is key. I did not mean soley basing your grading off pictures, that's redundant. As goes the same for basing your grading off of text.
I am not a grader or a very strong collector. I do love lustre in the fields. Given the two half Libertys examples you have provided, I could easily see paying the higher premium for the MS63. For me it would not be about the grade, it would be about the lustre. Also, if the coin choice was just a matter of filling a set, and I could not dig up the funds for the MS63, I might call it good and be happy for the other. However, after seeing the MS63, not sure if I would still be content with the MS60. Call me a pig for lustre.
When it comes to bullion pieces where there are 20,000 or so MS70 ASE potentially out there, that is where I do not get too excited about the grade. For me, it is more about the coin in the end - like you have suggested.
I did not realize that - the part about it not being a good idea to try to make associations about grading from pics. Interesting.
Luster plays a major roll in grades too. When considering blast white coins typically the luster is far superior on a 65 compared to a 63. Most of the time this is not recognizable in pictures on a computer. Many gold coins are hard to tell the difference. Morgans are probably the easiest to see the quality difference. In collectible hobbies, people pay for quality even if it is barely incrementally better. You can buy a Nolan Ryan rookie for $250 in a lower grade if you want. Or you can get one that is slightly better centered and sharper corners for $700. You can say theyre the same card but not to collectors. Or the guy selling it. This isnt a new concept. You may as well ask why theres a numismatic premium on any coin over their metal value.
All this is good and dandy until you try to grade a $5.00 Indian. When I first joined CT, I participated in several coin grading contests for fun. Boy did I learn a lot. That was a very eye opening experience for me. I was not born a grader. I would need to work at it.
Because MS-65 can be considered a complete full grade above MS-64. See “Pricing Relationships of United States Type Coinage”, The American Journal of Numismatics Second Series, vol. 23, pages 257 – 263 (2011) for a more detailed explanation as to why.
Detecto, Instead of telling us you can "easily" see the difference, why not answer Lehigh's question and tell us what you see? This gentleman has kindly taken his time and made a sincere effort to help you. I highly advise you take advantage of it instead of copying photograde images into your posts and acting as if you already know it all. Not everyone in the learning stages has experienced people willing to help them, and there is no shame in being a beginner (everyone had start somewhere). Using these opportunities will only make you a better collector, dealer, or whatever hat you claim to wear today.
He is using photograde images. http://www.pcgs.com/photograde/#/Mercury/Grades http://www.pcgs.com/photograde/#/Seated50/Grades
First of all, not all are marks. Second, for as much as many would like, holding a coin in hand is vastly different that photos, nor can only one side be used to express a point.
I real understand what the OP is saying as it very true. I won't double the price for 1 grade when I could use that money to fill another hole (there are a lot of hole in the Morgan Album) I mean people are obsessed with points for their registry set, when really it is the visual appeal is really what one should be after. This is also true with my type coins. My Ms 62 walker was 60 dollars (and looks great in my opinion) and another grade up was double that I believe. Then again I am a person with 2 MS-66 Morgans... That might be a little hypocritical