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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ToughCOINS, post: 3223685, member: 20480&quot;]&quot;This&quot; (the grade) does not determine value.&nbsp; The attributes of the coin do that.</p><p><br /></p><p>When newspapers, periodicals and mailings were the only available means of offering coins for sale, the grade was indispensable, but no longer.&nbsp; Photographs of coinage are almost ubiquitous today, and far more useful than numerical grades.&nbsp; No one needs to buy a coin sight unseen today when there are so many imaged examples available for purchase.&nbsp; In fact, I don&#039;t think I know anyone who wants to buy a coin sight unseen.</p><p><br /></p><p>There was a time when the value of a coin was almost universally determined by the adjectival grade, and later by the numerical grade.&nbsp; Now, valuing a coin has become so nuanced that the technical grade is less important than the sum of the coin&#039;s attributes, more easily conveyed by images than by a numerical grade.&nbsp; Unless one cannot grade, that is.&nbsp; It is for they which cannot grade that the numerical grade still determines value . . . or so they think.&nbsp; And that&#039;s where my argument holds water.</p><p><br /></p><p>Not all VF coins are worth the same amount of money.&nbsp; Do PCGS and NGC consciously boost the grade of an outstanding VF30 coin to XF40 to make sure it is appropriately priced?&nbsp; Do they suppress a homely VF25 to F15 for the same reason?&nbsp; I can&#039;t say for sure, as I do not work for them, but I&#039;ve seen many examples which lead me to believe that is the case.&nbsp; Since those most dependent on the TPGs seem to blindly link a coin&#039;s value with its numerical grade, it makes sense to me that the TPGs would adjust the grade accordingly.&nbsp; Do I like that they do so (or appear to)?&nbsp; No, but I understand why.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Yeah, doing away with everything except authentication seemed nuts to me too, at first.&nbsp; But I feel that dumping numerical grading by the TPGs would likely purge the investor community which drives so many issues to untenable levels and injects so much instability into the market.&nbsp; Seeing investors driven out of the market in one final exodus would be near term pain for long term gain.&nbsp; That&#039;s just one man&#039;s opinion, of course.&nbsp; I can&#039;t stand hearing repeated complaints of how expensive it has become to collect American coins, when the reason for it is plain for all to see.</p><p><br /></p><p>By the way, I forgot to include something in my thoughts last post.&nbsp; In addition to declaring the coin authentic, it should also be declared either natural or not.&nbsp; Then buyers can take comfort that their coins have not been cleaned, damaged or altered, and may then determine value for themselves, based purely on how they grade the coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>It was the abuses of unscrupulous dealers which gave birth to the TPG&#039;s in the first place.&nbsp; We, as knowledgeable collectors are fully capable of honing our grading skills, and re-calibrating as needed. If a declaration that a coin is both authentic and natural would suitably address the market need, I submit that a grade may not even be necessary on the holders.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>We&#039;ll see . . . so far I at least don&#039;t feel like I have been left behind.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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