coin collectors survival manual

sylvester
that sounds good to me, its in the other grades where the rip offs are.Any anyone that would do a little bit of studying would figure out they grades within a few months.for there specific coins.

i think these new grades came about outta sheer greed and not to benifit the hobby.

 

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Photograde is a wonderful book for circ coins.

 

Thanks, I'll get it today!

 

I totally agree with you, i find three grades of UNC suffice, no real need for 11 that's just trying to turn it into a science. What's more than that the ludicrous prices people will pay for one hairline less. I can't get my head around it.

How did my book put it? Three three grades you need...

UNC - Shows no signs of wear or of ever having been in circulation, with or without lustre, bagmarks allowed and the odd ding, odd edge knock and what not from the minting process.

BU - Better than UNC as it has only the smallest of bagmarks (if any) and retains full lustre.

Gem UNC - The cream of UNC/BU only 5% or less of coins could grade this, the kind of coin with full mint bloom and no scratches or marks and
full lustre.

The price between those three isn't always huge, infact UNC to BU isn't usually all that much, unless of course they are pre 20th century then the gap between the prices gets bigger. Gem UNCs go for whatever the dealer decides to mark them up as (if the dealer uses the grade at all), because Gem UNC is not listed in price guides... e.g

Say a 1930s coin was worth £5 in UNC, it might be worth £8 in BU and £15 in Gem UNC.

Although some dealers rarely refer to the coin as AFDC, which for a business strike coin is throwing cos although it might look prooflike in Gem UNC, it is not a proof and thus should not gain the lofty FDC specification.

 

Actually yes i do. I know dealers that have say 100 or so of one coin, like you say some are nicer than others all are however marked up at the same price... if sold sight unseen you get what he sends. The thing about this is, it works both ways, i can sometimes get an absolute beauty for the same price as a less appealing specimen, and sometimes vice versa. Having bought many BU coins on the sight unseen from a dealer's bulk lot of them i sometimes get a good one sometimes a less than average one, but i would say it's half half.

You forget that you guys are in a society where you look for the minor differences and once you become aware of them you find them hard to ignore. But when you are just used to a wide range of UNC coins of varying quality all priced exactly the same you can cherry pick the ones you want at no extra expense, i for one would like it to stay this way.

 

The grade can be set easier and far cheaper and any collector can learn how to grade easily.It can be done without the high costs incurred of grading services.

And once the grade is known which will be easy to know then eye appeal can be discussed for haggling the price.

This would revolutionize the coin hobby, it would bring in much more people.and the only people it hurts are ones grading the coins in the first place.People would still pay premiums within thee egeread for more luster less toning,more toning ect but it would removee teh snobbery of grading, It would however remove most coin dealers profits as well.

The last thing a coin dealer wants is less grades.

AND THE WORST POSSIBLE THING FOR COIN DEALERS IS FOR THERE CUSTOMERS TO ACTUALLY BE ABLE TO GRADE AS GOOD AS THEM.


The present grading system only exists because it suits the people making money from it.It is not of benifit to a hobbyist or collector or investor, only to the dealers and grading companies.

 

Just don't deal in the upper levels of grading. This means above MS65 for most series, MS63 for some.