CoinTalk's BEST CENT GRADERS (from pics)-3

23s: Au55
13: Ms62
26d: Au58
17d: Ms65

 

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"My point was that you post, we grade, and everyone judges everyone... except you. If you offer an opinion from in-hand, then we can learn what you think as well, holding us all accountable."
- BadThad posted a couple that I took a stab at and included in the results in this thread.., and I'll continue to do so if others post lincoln guess the grades in other threads,,, but in all honesty I'd be biased in posting expected grades on coins that I know the grade of. I can say that my grades would probably be the same based on this set of pictures in this thread vs. in hand... in fact, many times I see detail in these pictures that I don't notice under an industrial 'highly' illuminated 10x loupe I picked up from Starret a few years ago. With no doubts, there are some graders in this thread that do a better job at estimating grades than I would with these cents in hand,, easily.
IMO, in most but not all cases, the variation imparted by the TPG is greater than the variation imparted by the pics,,, but I'm not an expert grader. Judging is a harsh word, I hope no one is basing too much in the results, it's a friendly competition,, kinda like pitching quarters, or skipping rocks,,,, counting the rock skips after each toss is just for fun and usefull for measuring any marked improvement over time.... I will continue to keep track of everyone's results, and maybe at the end provide a line graph for each player to illustrate thier performance over time.
I've offered to remove anyone from the weekly rankings if they wanted that,, just let me know.
Also, I will list the tpg in each thread,, pretty sure I did in the first 2 or 3 threads, but must have missed it in this one. These are PCGS graded in this thread.

Good stuff.

 

Oh,, abit of an aside, but still within the scope. Regarding reading pictures,, on ebay, or where ever. One thing I've noticed over time and over a few purchases on the 'bay.
When you come across a picture in which there is part of a coin out of focus my old line of thought was always that the blurr indicated either wear (maybe because the wheat lines looked worn) or that the seller intentionally blurred the picture to hide wear.
What I have learned is quite the opposite:
1 - If you can read MS63 on one portion of a coin, and the other appears blurred due to focus,, most of the time the coin is just as nice as the portion of the coin that is in focus. The larger the portion that is in focus, the more confident you can be that the remainder is also just as nice.
2 - Most sellers on the 'bay are not good enough picture takers to intentionally hide wear on a subset of the coin surface by blurring out worn portions....... but standard disclaimers apply, there are always a few.. but in my experience, I have yet to find any.
3 - Most buyers will consider the out of focus areas to be wear and the coin will often sell at discount...
Moral of the story - read what you can when you come across a poor picture, use what you can see to judge the coin... most of the time you can assume the remainder of the coins is just as nice. I'd also still look for a discount and would be hesitant to bid full price unless you really had a good feeling about reading the picture.

 

The suspense is killing me! How about those results

 

Wow, I'm way off of what others are guessing...oh well, no guts, no glory...

1923 S - au58
1913 P - ms62
1926 D - au58
1917 D - ms65

-LTB

 

Round 3 recap:

PCGS grades -
23s - AU55
13 - BB (questionable color)
26d - MS60
17d - AU55

Per request, my opinions:
23s - Nice coin in hand, nice color, normal weakish strike, but on par or abit better than many I've seen. It's hard for me to grade weak strikes, as the line between wear and strike is often hard to differentiate, especially in this grade. A tough coin to grade. I probably would have said 50. Round 4 will have another wear/strike grader like this.
13 - dunno,, I submitted this one with my other blue 13 that I love so much... never would have wasted the $ if I thought the color was anything other than normal. Figured it was just natural dulling/toning of a red coin. There is nice sunset hues here and there on this coin and a color that is very comparable to other graded red and RB's I have. I held them side by side before making the decision to let it ride to pcgs,,, I did have some hesitation due to its somewhat unique tone, but felt it was comparable enough to have an honest shot at grading... my guess was 85% chance.
26d - very nice brown in hand, clean and somewhat reflective fields, a touch of wear above the ear and a few minor hits here and there,,, I might have said 62.
17d - Nicer brown color in hand than in the magnified pictures. You can't really see the little specks and is much less dirty looking in hand and not magnified. I would have missed this one badly also. maybe 63. It appears to have better detail than the 26d imo, but less reflective and maybe a bit dirtier look.

Awards for this set of cents:
Best - Mark_h - 4.5
HA - BadThad - 7.75

Now on to round 4.
We'll do seven cents in round 4.

 

Well at least I nailed one just right

That 13, I can see the color problem but thought it was probably the photo from the experience with your last ones. Guess not

The 26, well I guess more of those scratch's are on the coin then I thought. I thought it was a banged up holder.

And the 17 was either a AU or MS I couldn't tell from photo's so I split the difference to ease the hit to my score. eheheh.

We're ready for the next round!!
Thanks again bahabully

 

Yeah,, the 23s was NOT an easy grader imo, u did well to nail that one.

The 13 got everyone.. diffused pics are hard. However, both of these 13's,,my baby blue, and this one,, will talk a trip to pcgs every year for the next five years, or as long as I can afford it..... imo, both should grade.

The 26d scratches "are" on the holder...... there are no scratches on this coin,,,it is very clean fields, the only backside has to be wear and obvious hits and tpg grader variation.

The 17d,,again, I still scratch my head:headbang: this is an MS coin IMO,, you did well to split your decision, most went the path I would have honestly taken and graded this much higher than it actually did... again, I chalk this one up to grader variation..........the only visible downside I see in this coin was it's dirtiness under magnification... and sure as shat don't know how to grade dirt or eye appeal "under maginfication". In hand, it's an MS coin.

Have fun on round 4.... I DARE YOU It's a hummmm dinger........

 

Congrats Mark_h and BadThad :thumb:

-LTB

 

Definitely Congrats to both winners..... BadThad owes us an elegant dialog,, full of pokes in the eye, slinging snot, and general borderline cointalk warning points comment......... shoe did well in this regard, you may want to reference his post upon receipt of the HA award.....

 

baha, what is my cumulative score now?

Oh, and BTW, I think I'll stick with the grades I gave for those 4. And I think that you agree with me too.

 

Yeah Mike,,, our grades would be very close, and I'll stick to ours too ; )

Here's your view:
GRADER COIN ACT EST DELTA
MIKEN 1925D 58 64 6
1922D 62 62 0
1931D 63 55 8
1931D 64 BB 10
1909S VDB 20 15 5
1913 BB 62 10
1915D 63 64 1
1923S 55 55 0
1913 BB 64 10-X
1926D 60 64 4
1917D 55 63 8


anything with a "-X" by it represents a dropped score.

We are around 30% complete with the exercise.

 

30% complete!!!
Awe

 

haha,, well, maybe not that much...
No one's ponied up on round 4 yet.... interest may be wavering,,, shame if so, some of the other TPG's, especially the lower one's, will be interesting.

 

I for one will not engage in a guessing game as to what XYZ slabber (mis)graded a coin. For the mean time while we stick with the big 2 or 3, I will offer on them all if I am physically able.

 

WooooHooooo.....I got the HA! :mouth: :computer:

 

1923-s ms-61 bn

1913 ms 65 rd

1926-d au 58

1917-d ms 64 r/b