I was trying to be factious. I was attempting to bring the MS65 grade down to the level of known low grade MS, not bring my album copies up the the 65 level. Maybe I am missing something on grading. I know the standard grows exponentially the closer you get to 70, but I would not pay $5 for this coin graded MS65. I paid .50 each for the other two, at my local coin shop.
Your free one has several hits in the field and on the cheek. The goat has a few hits and the ring surrounding the park looks beat up too. The two from your LCS have far fewer hits and if the luster is there, I would think would grade higher.
sonlarson, the ones from your lcs are much better than the one received from PCGS. These, of course, are just my opinions. That one from PCGS looks like it came from a mint bag that was hung up as a pinata and beaten a couple hundred times with a large stick to make sure all the coins therein made nice hard contact with each other many times over.
That's the point I was trying to make. PCGS has a promotion with a free give-a-way to encourage collectors to buy their high grade products. If the coin they sent to me is an example of what they consider MS65, why would I have any confidence in their grading. Perhaps I should send it back and ask for a refund. My 2 hole fillers look just as good to me. BTW, all the propaganda material that came with the coin has been properly filed away.
Very, very funny! Whoever graded these should get a whooping, however, it was probably done on a supervisor's orders. If so, then whoever the ultimate higher up that authorized this kind of grading ought to receive a whooping.
You are right, the give away is really cool. Free is great! In fact, I have said again, and again, that I would love a 61-62 coin for my own grading reference. I have purposely purchased MS64 state quarters (at a price that I could have gotten a 65) just so I can try and tell the difference between the grades. Why couldn't they just be a bit more careful in the grading of these coins?
Even if, as Doug has said, they only spend about 6 seconds per coin, it shouldn't be that difficult to differentiate a 62-63 from a 64-65 or even a 66.
That is probably a big part of it. Get people to submit run of the mill coins for grading and then for registry in their set online. I wonder if the run of the mill coins this will generate for grading if they will grade them with a bit more scrutiny?
I got mine today.....2011-D Glacier MS65. Im kind of ticked, should be a 66....maybe I'll re-submit .
Trying to get better with my photos, but here is a few more shots of mine. I don't see any major dings on mine, just a lot of dust on it already, and it's a MS66. Would you all agree with the grade, or can you tell by the pics?
You know what would be awesome.....If NGC offered free cross-overs on NP quarters just to snub PCGS. PCGS would be sooooo thrilled to see that happen.