Grade Inflation or Why is midrange UNC gold all junk?

I have only one CACG graded coin, and I like it very much. They called this AU-55. I paid a premium for the grade. I think that it is an AU-58, but so what?



Some of the CACG coins I have seen were very conservatively graded, but the huge premiums the dealers wanted offset that completely and then some.

 

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CAC stickers are now getting valued like OGH or Rattler holders....people are posting that if CAC simply sticks to CACG TPG grading in the future and no more stickering, then that makes the existing stickers more valuable.

So people are bidding them all up, but especially the PCGS+CAC combo.

 

Somehow this all just seems to be getting more and more distant from, you know, coin collecting...

 

You and I disagree on the value of CAC stickers. If I don’t like the coin, I don’t care whose sticker is on it. I ended up not caring for the only gold CAC sticker coin I ever owned. Fortunately I was able to sell it and make some money, but that didn’t change my opinion of it.

 

I think OBSESSING over it would take the fun out of things, yes, Jeff.

I don't consider a small focus to be a problem. And if a PCGS or NGC CAC coin ended up in a CACG holder, I could care less. I'm more concerned with the quality behind the coin than I am with the monetary value that may accrue from the sticker itself, even if the reason for the sticker is somewhat dubious.

 

No, I'm with you on the substance and merits....I still LIKE having the CAC just to confirm luster which is my big thing.

A 1927-D Saint owner requested a LOWER GRADE so that the coin could get a CAC rather than be higher-graded without !!

CAC stickers and old holders now have value....the poster known as "EliteCollection" who owns the 1933 Saint recently bought one of the 1st coins ever graded by PCGS. The coin was basically not much, it was all about having one of the earliest coins graded by a TPG.

Buy the holder, not the coin.

 

And while this still seems to me pretty much divorced from coin collecting, I guess there's nowhere else to put it.

 

Holder collecting !!

Question: can I put my valuable holders....in a holder ?

To protect them, of course.

 

Hefty makes them, a set of 20 is $4.98

 

Yes, indeed. I have a friend that is a sophisticated coin and currency collector, among other interests. And he has an extensive collection of, yes, slabs. He can tell you anything you want to know, and much you don't, about these things.

And yes, there is a market for such and they fetch good money.

Now it's not my thing at all. But I don't begrudge anybody their freak so long as it's not illegal, immoral or fattening.

There was some research by the Greysheet folks and others a few years ago documenting exactly this - how some green bean coins were fetching more than the next higher grade without a bean.

 

I should clarify my statement about what I was looking for and also comment on @johnmilton 's Classic Head gold.

My issue began around 2018 when I began looking thru Heritage's site to buy various common Liberties: basically $20's and $5's issued from 1880 to 1908. I was looking for nice mark-free specimens in PCGS/NGC 63 & 64.

Here's a $10. I bought in a Philly coin shop in 1982 @ $340.
USA $10 Liberty 1889-S, bought in Philly in 1982 as "unc"
Heritage & I estimated it at ms-63.

I don't think it could make a 64, it has some very minor bag marks but no major scuffs anywhere and absolutely no friction or "rub" on the cheek or anywhere.

So I began looking through on-line auctions for more nice Liberties starting in 2018 or so. I did find two beautiful $20's (in the 1890's) but at a dealer's table in '23 at $2,850 ea. Didn't buy them as I just spent 5 figures for a Cleopatria tetradrachm to use in my coin presentations. - which subsequently went down nowadays. Also I sold all my Lib 20's a long time ago but wanted some nice ones as my Aunt's family showed me a beautiful bagmark-free 1898-P she got "IN CHANGE" at her shop in the 1950's.

So my comments were only for COMMON Liberties found on-line in PCGS & NGC slabs in 63 and 64 grades.

I shall reply separately on your Classic Head golds which are rare and very desireable types and are not at all common.

 

While not an expert, I can only claim to have attempted to buy Classic Head gold. The 1838 is not a "C" i.e. a branch mint with striking problems, so there should be well-struck ones existing.


Looking at HA for grades 58 & up, here's the 1st one I saw, an 1838 plain in NGC-58. Looks fully struck up to me?

I was recently (Nov 2025) told when visiting a major auction firm that one of the grading companies fired a bunch of graders and replaced them with lower-cost junior people. At the January FUN show, I stopped by the CAC booth as I was unfamiliar with the fact that CAC was now it's own independent company. The CAC people were extremely unfriendly - I guess not used to dealing with people? Anyhow CAC is apparently now incharge of slabbing their own coinage. There are some collectors who are only looking for CAC coinage. Now I'm just an engineer/ scientitst, but it would seem to me that that might introduce a bias to "CAC" coins so as to make them saleable?

Here is a comparison. 1838 Quarter Eagle, AU 55, CAC



same, but non-CAC, nearly half-price.

Yes gold went up in 2 years, but not this much for 0.12095 of an oz.
I should mention that the weights may be off. Beginning in 1837 the gold was increased from .8992 to .9000 so Classics from '37 on should be heavier if the same size was used. Else they'd be smaller, but someone, owning both, should check & report back here.

 

I would have stayed away from that one when I was a kid and paying $3.25 for Morgans. But online photos are hard to judge. Still that coin does not look good. Not a straight grade maybe "AU-Details"?

 

Wow...when did you start collecting with the $5,000 MS-65 price, JM ?

It appears that the MS-65 level was a premium grade and coin and then pricing got wrecked by excess supply which you state came from loose grading.

Could some of this supply have come from hoards and/or a trickle of coins over time from folks who held them forever and/or their inheritors who dumped them ?

 

I'm aware of that happening at times with an AU-58 CAC vs. an MS-60 or 61.

But not where a "kink" in pricing/grading is not involved.

I doubt that 1927-D Saint was more valuable with CAC and 1 grade lower.

 

You grade the coins on their merits. I don’t know if they are “new blood.” I just know the quality of at some of the recent stuff is not as good.