This video is (IMO) well worth watching...it's 34 mins long so you might want to watch on a Sunday morning when you have the time.
You did very well then, especially considering that we do not have the coins in hand. I graded lower on several.
On that seated quarter, I got the numerical grade right, but not the other important piece of info. (I thought it was interesting that Ron Guth missed it too, when he took the test). Thanks for posting it. I learned that they penalize coins about 1 grade point for fingerprint toning. And I thought it was interesting that Guth admitted that he would have graded that 1943-S Walking Liberty Half differently if it had been a 1941-P.
I missed the proof also. As for the Walker, I was a little perplexed by that also...I can see the strike being better from Philly, but the date?? @physics-fan3.14
Well I just took the test. It was not easy looking at the coins at an angle. I muted the video towards the beginning as I didn't want to be influenced by the commentary. I scored 8 out of the 20, I did catch the proof that you talked about and got it correct. I had only one coin where I was off fairly significantly, where I thought I saw rub and it was a gold. The rest I was about a point different than the PCGS grades, 7 over and 5 under. Overall it was pretty fun.
8 is VERY good. I sent the link to a friend of mine and he got 5 "right." It was funny to me that on the Morgan that the dude thought was DMPL, and on the 50c commem, they were so far apart they didn't even seem to want to discuss it much, lol.
@jtlee321 8 is VERY good, especially since we are at a disadvantage of seeing them in a video. I think it's a worth while learning tool. And I think they had a good variety of coins...did not see a dime...did anyone else?
That's because whatever you grade a coin is what it grades--TO YOU. There is a big difference between grading a coin and guessing what number a TPG put on its label. You
Fact: if @GDJMSP took this test in person FOR REAL and found out he agreed with PCGS on say, 2/3 of them, he'd be disappointed in himself and would begin to fall into a deep depression.
I was surprised I did that well with the handicap we had over Charles, who got to see them in hand. That 1912 was gorgeous!! I thought proof for a moment, but I knew it wasn't. It was one of the 8 I got correct.
This same video was posted a couple of months ago. I took the challenge, and posted my results in that thread: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/pcgs-coin-grading-challenge-video.283044/
10 undergraded, 6 on the money, 4 overgraded. Guess I won't wait for the phone to ring from PCGS. Interesting exercise. Steve
No danger of that happening ! You see, I usually look at quite a few coins for various people every single day, and have done so for many years. So yeah, I do take that test, for real, pretty much every single day. Now there was a time when I would agree with the grades assigned by PCGS, or NGC, about 85% of the time. But that was quite a few years ago now. Today, I still agree with a few, but that number has shrunk to under 10%, well under !
I agree with your comment. But what gets me is when people think the grade assigned by the TPG is correct ! No, it's not what it grades "to me". I don't make up my own standards. It's what it grades according to published and long established ANA standards. PCGS doesn't even come close to following their own published standards ! And NGC, they don't even HAVE any published standards ! That's the difference.
What I found interesting is how open they are about including appearance & toning in the grade - "distracting toning spots" "too many fingerprint toning marks", etc.