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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 928, member: 57463&quot;]In their own words from their website:</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;ACCUGRADE™ is the oldest grading Company in the US and Canada. The founding of ACCUGRADE goes back to 1984 when Alan Hager, noted silver dollar expert, invented slab certification for coins. ACCUGRADE paved the way for the industry of coin grading. Today, over 7 million coins have been certified, generating over $140 million in fees to the coin grading services since Mr. Hager&#039;s invention in 1985.&quot;</p><p>http://www.asa-accugrade.com/about.htm</p><p><br /></p><p>Some people on other internet media have excoriated Mr. Hager for not -- in their opinion -- following ANA grading guidelines or PCGS guidelines or some other guidelines.&nbsp; A little time on eBay will reveal a broad range of definitions for the grades of coins.&nbsp; You might even find some examples that in your opinion are downright egregious, way outside what you regard as the &quot;norm.&quot;&nbsp; That would apply to any grading company&#039;s work.</p><p><br /></p><p>ASA Accugrade and Mr. Hager were the FIRST to certify coins, so any &quot;deviations from the norm&quot; come from those who followed.&nbsp; Such changes in standards may be valid, but did in fact, come AFTER.</p><p><br /></p><p>Second, ASA Accugrade (and PCGS and PCI and your favorite dealer and you yourself) are under no obligation to follow the ANA, PCGS, Photograde, or any other system.&nbsp; If you own the DLRC Books about Buffalos or Seateds or Mercs, you know that each series (and issues within each series) must be graded on its own merits.&nbsp; &quot;Known for weak strikes...&quot; is pretty common.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Furthermore, the Early American Coppers, Inc., has established a consensus of grading within that speciality that has nothing to do with other grading in US Numismatics.&nbsp; In addition, ancient coins are graded in several ways that (until now) had nothing to do with VF-25 or other American methods.&nbsp; An ancient might be graded &quot;goodVF/choiceFine&quot; (each side graded separately for flan and strike) and that grade is well understood by all active collectors of ancients. There are all kinds of grading &quot;standards&quot; out there, applied to different kinds, types, and series of numismatic items.</p><p><br /></p><p>About 15 to 20 years ago, the Federal Trade Commission cracked down on PCGS, Tulving, and other big name (and small time) companies (destroying some) and in court got them to settle by admitting in writing that GRADING IS SUBJECTIVE.</p><p><br /></p><p>In another thread, Mr. Reid Goldsborough said that Accugrade shut down websites of people who criticized them.&nbsp; However you interpret that, the other side of the coin is that ignorant collectors made wild and unsupportable accusations that potentially damaged the firm&#039;s good name.&nbsp; When the error of their ways was pointed out to them, they quit doing it.&nbsp; Interpret that as you want -- just as you grade coins by your own standards.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Any time you put a coin in a 2x2 and write a grade on it, you are certifying it.&nbsp; Would you care to put your NAME on the coin as well and have everyone in the hobby judge your grading forever? And then post the results to Rec.Collecting.Coins with comments about your personal integrity?</p><p><br /></p><p>In collecting (coins or paper; ancient or modern; world or US) we always say, &quot;Buy the coin, not the holder.&quot;&nbsp; That is all you can say about any service. The first slabbed coin I bought was a pretty Seated Quarter in a PCI holder.&nbsp; I bought it because the dealer endorsed the coin: I knew and cared nothing about grading companies, I just wanted a nice coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>Some services trade well sight-unseen.&nbsp; The CCE network considers only PCGS and NGC with interesting disparities between them.&nbsp;&nbsp; I know of one dealer who does well prefering to buy and sell only ANACS.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Grading is subjective.&nbsp; The fact that grading is subjective is the only legally recognized fact about grading.</p><p><br /></p><p>Before you join the lynch mob, get the facts.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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