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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;calcol, post: 3432405, member: 77639&quot;]The US government does subjective grading of some things.&nbsp; Mostly things we put in our mouth, like meat and produce.&nbsp; I&#039;ve had a long association with food animal production and am most familiar with beef grades.&nbsp; There are only 8 grades of beef as opposed to 70 grades of coins.&nbsp; Grading is entirely different from inspection and is done by different government employees.&nbsp; Inspection is mandatory and is a go/no-go determination of wholesomeness.&nbsp; Once a carcass is determined fit to eat, grading can be done to assign quality.&nbsp; Grading is optional, and the packing plant pays for it.</p><p><br /></p><p>But guess what?&nbsp; There is a never ending stream of complaints about grading by producers, packing plants, retailers, and consumers.&nbsp; Individual graders are inconsistent day to day, graders differ too much in their judgment, graders are influenced by the breed, graders are influenced by sex of the animal, graders are stricter in some plants than others, there are too many grades, there are too few grades, etc. etc. Sound familiar?</p><p><br /></p><p>Wherever people categorize things based on perceived quality, whether it&#039;s coins, diamonds or sides of beef, there will be differences of opinion and mistakes.&nbsp; Could government oversight of coin grading itself improve it?&nbsp; I doubt it.&nbsp; Government grading of foods is not without controversy.&nbsp; However, the government could play a meaningful role in eliminating and prosecuting deliberate bias, bribery, insider grading, etc.</p><p><br /></p><p>Cal[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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