How is this for truth in advertising: "At press time, gold has hit the $475 mark..." Gold has not been over the $460 mark in the past 10 years! I liked this one too, from an ANA member: "We do not employ or endorse the use of numbers in grading. Using numbers implies that absolute lines of demarcation exist from one grade to the next. They do not...." Instead they use this system for higher grades: About Uncirculated....................AU Choice About Uncirculated......CH AU Boderline Uncirculated.......Bord. UNC Brilliant Uncirculated...................BU Select Brilliant Uncirculated....Sel. BU Premium Quality BU................PQ BU Superb Brilliant Unc...............Sup BU Think PCGS and NGC will pick up on this?
A lot of people agree with the first part of the second comment... I don't know so much about the grade selections that were chosen, though - but they are close. As for gold - there's too many people out there that think the more you hype it, the higher it will go...
I sure hope not. There is no such thing as borderline uncirculated. Either it is or it isn't. AU is just that. Numbers at least are set in stone. While we each still have an opinion as to what our coin matches what number, at least the numbers are set. In years past, there were general grades, and it DID NOT work well at all.
the borderline was the one I really didn't like. You had explained the other ones to me before, and where the words he chose weren't the same - it is similar. how come the general grades did not work well?
Basically because there are far more possibilities. All VF coins are not the same. There has to be more than just G, VG, F, VF, XF, AU, Unc, BU. Unc CH. Unc, and Premium Unc. What we need is technical grading and not market grading. Reverting back to a failed system is no different than revamping the failed dollar coins. No matter how pretty you make a failed system, it will always fail.
The story is the same now as it was then - opinions. Trouble is, some opinions can't be trusted as much as others. And we need a bit more than to switch from market grading to technical grading. We also need a universal set of grading standards. I've written about this so many times that I don't even like to write about it anymore. But ya never know - maybe someday - people will actually listen Here's what we have now - I know of at least 3 times that the ANA has changed their grading standards over the years. NGC has theirs - PCGS has theirs - ANACS has theirs - ICG has theirs - and all of the other grading companies - well they say they have standards And then of course you have the various sets of standards that collectors & dealers everywhere use - and they're all different !! We need 1 - just 1 - that everybody uses and aheres to.
Terms like Borderline Unc are just smoke and mirrors used to sell AU coins. I saw a Coin World add once that boasted "Select Borderline About Uncirculated"...uh...that would be XF. Seems like they'll do anything to use that word "uncirculated" in the ads because they're hoping to catch someone having a dumb moment or someone new to collecting...pretty sad. Luckily, not all dealers try to artificially inflate the grades/values of their coins. Don't get me wrong. It's COMPLETELY ok for advertisers to state the nice qualities of their stuff. But misleading ads are unfair and detrimental to us all. As a hard working fulltime dealer frankly it offends me. Nick
100% agree. I think it would be better for the industry if we advance along with technology and learn from our past to create a better, more acurate, more consistant grading service. As I have said before, I would much like to see a full grading report done for every coin submitted to the "big four". Similar to grading certificates on precious gems (Maybe some do it already?). It may sound unrealistic as of now, but that's just how I feel. And maybe that's something only done to coins of a certain value or if the customer wishes to pay the extra money. I just like DETAILS...
Would it be fair to say no matter what type of system is used, numerical or otherwisw, there will always be opinions and lines of demarcation? When phrases like; Approximately half, About Half, Show some wear, Only a trace of, Usually struck, and Will begin to show wear, are used, how can anything be definite?
