I cannot find my first edition of the ANA grading Guide. If you have a copy and when you have the time will you post the definition of: 1. Unc Choice 2. Unc Typical 3. AU Choine 4. AU Typical ...and if the book explains the difference between "typical" and "Choice." Thanks
I also have several copies of the 1977 copyrighted A.N.A. illustrated standards which were re-published with the same definitions, but altered images that are believed incongruent/conflicting. The incongruency believedly voids any future editions that are referenced, but not published as a stated discontinuation of the documented/published original standard. JMHO
I apologize, as I added an addendum to my original post thus: The incongruency believedly voids any future editions that are referenced, but not published as a stated discontinuation of the documented/published original standard. It's believed the legal opinion explains that any future standard would be voided without a denial of the copyrighted clear illustrated standard.
Can I ask where you got that, and what the copyright date on it is ? And I'm asking because that sure isn't what my first edition ANA guide, copyright 1977, has printed in it. It has some similar wording but what you posted above isn't it.
Then somebody there screwed up because it's definitely not the 1st edition. As I said copyright date for the 1st edition was 1977, and 2nd edition was not published until 1984, followed by the 3rd edition in 1987. And what your picture shows under MS65, the grades MS62 and MS67 didn't even exist until the 2nd edition was published. In the 1st edition, there were only 3 MS grades - MS70, MS65, and MS60. There were no other MS grades. The pictures I posted show all the grades that existed at the time.
Then, they screwed up. I did not author it, although I believe that it accurately sums up grading standards as they really are.
My Illustrated " HARD-BOUND BIBLE": "OFFICIAL A.N.A. GRADING STANDARDS FOR UNITED STATES COINS", States a Text and Illustrations Copyright year of 1977. It properly defines and shows through illustrations, what is stated. Future publications used identical verbiage with photos, but the subjective images, it's believed, occasionally didn't reflect the grade description. A higher grade coin photo was placed with a lower grade description. JMHO
At one time the ANA used "Choice" and "Typical" to identify coins in the top or bottom of a grade. A choice coin had fewer marks than a typical coin. The combined the amount of wear and the number of marks. Later, they corrected this confusing mistake. I started preaching how stupid this was for years because a baggy coin that had an AU-59 amount of wear could not be considered "choice" (very few detracting marks). Therefore it was a Typical AU (AU-50-53). I am extremely pleased that today the amount of wear on a coin has been made a major determination of the circulated grades. So we have come full circle. News Flash: Modern "detail" grading is exactly what was done way back in 1972 using the "Technical Grading System" I developed to ID coins for internal record keeping and then at the first TPGS - INSAB. Additionally, commercial grading of circulated coins has evolved to be more focused on the actual amount of wear. That was obvious to us in 1972. Straight grades for MS coins depends on several factors such as luster and marks. A circulated straight grade depends on the amount of wear. The ANA had the chance to do exactly this at least a year before they had the "experts" write a grading guide. They did not. The big problem with the true Technical Grading System was that a coin's value was of no consequence. It was designed only to determine a coin's condition of preservation from the time it was struck and to ID it (along with weight and photo of both sides) if it were ever lost. It did not work at all in the commercial market where lustrous, mark free sliders (AU) were sold as MS-65 gems. It was NOT practiced at the ANA's service in CO.
A fine point perhaps but we're not discussing how grades really are, but rather how they really were. And exactly what the ANA guide had in it, not what some individuals may or may not have used. 1977, 1st edition - the only MS grades were MS70, MS65, and MS60. 1984, 2nd edition - the MS63 and MS67 grades were added to the other three MS grades. They also added another AU grade and a few other circ grades as well. 1987, 3rd edition - it was not until the 3rd edition that all the grades we know and use today were added. And that's how they remained up to and including today. It was also with the 3rd edition that the technical grading system ended and what we call today "market grading" system was created by the ANA. With a few major differences from what many think "market grading" entails today. Things like scarcity, value, provenance played absolutely no part in the ANA market grading system. And they also played absolutely no part in the TPG grading systems which were created at the same time the 3rd edition ANA system was published. And in point of fact the very men who founded the TPGs sat in on all the ANA meetings and helped develop the new ANA grading system in 1986. But the book of course was not actually published until '87. It was only in later years that things like scarcity, value, and provenance began tp play a part in the TPG grading.
Doug, I am aware of the ANA standards historically. I no longer have paper copies of the books, as my library got far too extensive, and I have had stuff digitized. Yes, I would say that most senior collectors are aware of the change in standards, by gradual addition over the years. Glad you kept your books.
Mine is the same, of course but that lacks the language of “typical” which appears on individual type pages. Such as this:
Yeah, they have that for every individual coin. You can also look in the glossary where they have a description for Choice but they do not have one for Typical - which is I didn't include it. But in the general descriptions of the grades that I did list they do use the word Choice, which implies that the next lower grade is Typical - as they show on the pages for individual coins.
