As many folks here know I am not big into slabbing coins. However, I have started to slab some for one simple reason. If something happens to me I know my wife will be able to get better money for coins in plastic with numbers on them. We use NGC a lot at work so I recently sent a few of my own in along with some from the boss. One was an 1876 Twenty Cent Piece. Low mintage but had been cleaned. Now that NGC will still slab the coin I sent it their way. It came back as AU details Improperly cleaned. The other was an 1875 Twenty Cent Piece that was actually one of the few "slabs" I owned. It was graded by ICCS out of Toronto, Canada as XF40. I always knew this coin was under graded but was I ever pleased with what NGC graded it. It came back as an AU55! Now I've seen enough people resubmit coins countless times (especially Morgan Dollars) to get that one point boost. I'm happy with the 15 point boost. It will stay in the holder it is now in. Just thought I'd share this with y'all.
ICCS grades according to Canadian standards, which are almost purely technical instead of market grading that has completely overtaken US standards. Canadian standards are also more strict than US.
I own some canadian dollars in ICCS holders and I will say I am very impressed with them and the way they grade. I've never seen any US coins in their holders though.
Congrats on those submissions! It would be great if there would be a way for us to "stick our toes in the waters" and see what happens before submitting several coins.
Dan! Great news bud, that's a sweet upgrade. I'll throw in Some comments on iccs. Sometimes I'm a little tired of how strict iccs is. They will grade a coin which is no doubt about it, an AU coin, and they will slab it as an XF. The problem now though, is that any new Canadian companies that want to enter the grading circle are going to have a tough time. Because if anyone starts up a company, and tries to grade appropriately will be shunned because they will always be compared to the stricter standards of ICCS. I guess to an extent I can just keep doing what I'm doing, and reap the benefits of lower costs for higher grade coins.
What European company (ies) are you referring to ? I've always heard that Europeans don't care if coins are cleaned. I can't comment one way or the other. If true, that sounds like lower standards to me.
I have no first-hand experience, so I can't say for sure. From what I've heard, it sounds like a very small company with a very few graders. Thus, one man's opinion can alter the standard - particularly if the founder / owner has a certain philosophy, which seems inevitable. It almost sounds like a different grading scale - like the difference between the English and Metric systems of weights and measures. I know an old, old Early American Copper man who is notoriously hard on coins. He consistently grades several quanta lower than anyone else - even other Olde School guys who wrote books. To me, that's not strict grading - it's inaccurate grading. One shouldn't be overly harsh to earn the title "strict". A good grader is one who consistently matches generally accepted criteria (a statement which can open quite a can of worms, I'm sure).
I doubt I can get a scan to do it justice but will tell the story behind it. I bought it from a Canadian that winters in Florida some years ago. He promply answered any questions I had about the coins but his pictures were horrible but I took the cbance. I DID think it merited a higher grade upon arrival and was obviously happy. I took it to my local dealer (now boss) for an opinion. Just so happened another dealer was there at the time and both thought it merited at least an AU50. It remained in the ICCS holder for a few years and I finally decided to crack it out. I would have been pleased with AU50 and thought perhaps AU53 but honestly didn't figure an AU55. I don't work for NGC but I'll take the grade although honestly I thought AU53 at tops.
I would agree with that!, Any coin that is harshly cleaned should Get a lower grade, It deffinitley will mater, Try taking a coin that Was graded in europe and bring here and for sure it would get Alot lower grade in comparison!:headbang:
I'd be real curious to know what NGC would have done with the coin if it had been left in the ICCS holder with the xf40 grade visible. Of course we'll never know , but I'd like to know what people think.
