I'm fairly new to this whole thing and had a question about grading. Why don't companies grade coins that have been cleaned or removed from jewlery? I would've thought that they would still give a grade to these coins, just not as high as a regular coin. Instead they just certify them as genuine. So, why don't grading companies assign grades to ex jewlery or cleaned coins?
They will grade cleaned coins, to an extent. They will slab them, and will assign a grade like this: Uncirculated:cleaned or XF Details:Cleaned Some of the grading companies will not actually say 'cleaned', but will use a specific number in the certificate number to denote that it was cleaned. Same goes for damaged coins.
Why not? Wouldn't you love to win an Ebay auction for a beautiful XF-45 Seated Dime just to find out it was bent and damaged because of improper storage such as jewelery. You bought it for good money that a problem free XF45 coin would go for, but you get damaged. That is why they don't assign a numeric grade. Mainly because an ex jewelery coin or a cleaned coin is a damaged coin. Oh, and they do give details grades such as XF Details Cleaned or VF Details Bent and the such.
Coins which have been cleaned or damaged in jewelry mounts have a greatly reduced value. When you pay to have a coin graded, grading companies use 'market grading', which means that they are essentially assigning a value to the coin. It isn't easy or practical to try to assign a 'grade' to a coin that has bee damaged through improper cleaning or otherwise damaged, as there are not clear standards for how to determine a 'grade' for damage.
Questions: Would you pay $250,000 for a Ferrari that was totalled or would you prefer to spend your $250,000 on an "undamaged" Ferrari? Would you pay $40 for an obviously cleaned Morgan Dollar or would you prefer to spend your $40 on a Morgan that hasn't been "messed" with? TPGs support the collecting community and since the collecting community does not want "cleaned" or "damaged" coins, TPGs will not give them a grade.
Simple answer, because they are considered to be damaged. And damaged coins cannot be graded. That rule has been around since the very beginning of grading, going clear back to the 1800's. It is the one rule that has never changed. It is the very foundation of coin grading.
ANACS has graded problem coins for ages. Years ago they used to give them a details grade and a net grade that took the problems into account. But they caught a lot of flak over the net grades they assigned so eventually they dropped the net grade and just list the detail grade. NGC began putting problem coins in slabs with detail grades a few years ago but do not assign net grades. PCGS began putting problem coins in their slabs with no grades just labeling them as genuine about three years ago. A little over a year ago they began listed detail grades but not net grades. The reason NGC and PCGS do not assign net grades and why ANACS stopped doing so is because there is no consistant way to determine how much of a deduction should be made for the problems because every problem is different and not every problem has the same degree of dislike for every person. So if you think there is disagreement over the grading of problem free coins, multiply that about twenty times and you get the disagreement over assigned net grades. Rather than put up with that headache they just give the detail grade, list the problem(s), and let the working out the net grade be between buyer and seller.
