Thanks for the clarification. I thought you might be a rookie collector. This was not a personal attack. I hoped a member or two would wish to educate you as there has been a recent thread here on eye appeal and grading. I wished to sit on the sidelines and read the discussion. Can't argue with this opinion of "fact" as it goes way beyond any productive discussion. Just another example where the education arm of the ANA has failed the average collector.
I guess my point is, how can a grader assign a coin points based on eye appeal? No two graders anywhere can agree on that. There is no technical aspect, no consistency, and really, a semblance of consistency is why we have a grading standard to begin with, else whats the point at all.
"Insider's" actual opinion: Eye Appeal is extremely important to grading, is found in his Post#25. Every member should also watch the video in Post#26 for another opinion.
Yet it says nothing about how it factors in. Eye appeal is subject to taste and opinion, not detail. Perhaps this is one of the multitude of reasons grading has become more a joke than an actual process with results worth merit.
I'm just looking for a clear understanding of how it can possibly factor in. There is no win or lose.
How can planes fly? You can argue it all you want, but eye appeal is a factor in grading, it has always been a factor in grading, and it will always be a factor in grading. Its' importance - numerically - has varied over the years, there's more than one way to express it, and we will always argue it incessantly - yer damn right some things never change - but denying the presence of an 800lb gorilla in the room does not change the fact that it exists. And all of the rest of us can see it.
Regardless of eye appeal, no two graders see a coin the same way. This is the Achilles Heel of the coin industry/collector.
lol Brilliant logic. I guess since everyone is a professional grader by nature here and knows the ins and outs without question (or a reasonable shred to back their claims), then I have no recourse but to let you all go about it blindly. Thanks.
Discounting me personally - just so nobody can say it's me being about "me" - just_how_much accumulated experience do you suppose you're talking to in this thread alone? Do you think the TPG's are the only place you find people who have devoted their entire lives to numismatics? Do you think you're the only one here who isn't a rookie? Call me wrong, then. Start a bespoke thread to discuss whether eye appeal is/should be a part of coin grading, and I will stay completely out of it.
Somehow I lost interest in this thread. I don't argue on CT. What I do is learn and at the same time educate others. The nasty little secret to grading is the fact that every, intelligent, knowledgeable, and experienced person has developed their own personal grading standards. The closer those standards conform to the current grading "status quo," the less frustration and mistakes will occur. No one can teach subjective "eye appeal" but it is an extremely important factor in coin grading. Experience viewing TPGS slabs is a good way to teach yourself what is popular. Example: Iridescent Blue Indian cents were once returned in body bags, then slabbed as "artificial color." Today, they are considered "gems" in the industry.