I'm reading Q. David Bowers' guide to morgan dollars (an excellent read, by the way) and in one section, he mentions that even the experts who work for the major grading companies, like PCGS, ANA, and NGC can have very different opinions on how a coin grades out. These different opinions can have a huge impact on a Morgan's value, as an MS-65, is much more valuable than an MS-64, a 64 is significantly more valuable than a 63, etc, when there is not a lot of difference in the actual condition. I was wondering whether anyone else has had expieriances with having coins graded differently by different people, and how it impacted the coin's value.
This was on another thread, you might of read it already BUT, I had an 1878 7TF Rev 79 graded MS 65 by, I'm embarassed to say, NNC. Graded befoore I bought it. But it looked like that or maybe 64. When I took it to a show I was basically laughed at with everyone saying AT MOST it was 63. Now according to the trends its value went from $3200 to 200. I bought it for around 200. So then I had a decision to make. Send it to PCGS/NGC have it come back at 64 (1200) or have it come back at 63 (200). Thats what I HATE about coin grading! the subjectiveness! Seems NNC, NTC seem to overgrade so I'm alot more careful now.
Bowers is right---IMHO NGC grades Morgan dollars better than any other grading company----I don't collect cents but some people think PCGS does better on them.....none of this bothers me becasue I'm buying the coin not the slab. Speedy
It is one of the failures of the market, people submitting and cracking and submitting over and over again the same coin attempting to acheive their super grade. Once a coin i sgraded that ought to be it, but it never is.
It's absolutely true - there are many examples of grading experts disagreeing on the grade of a given coin. However - it's kind of like the forrest and the trees thing. What do I mean ? Just that - all too often people can't see the forrest because they focus on individual trees. And THAT'S what happens when grading coins is discussed. We all talk about the times when the experts disagree - this company says this, that company says that - those examples are the trees. And there may well be thousands of them. But what about the forrest ?? There may be thousands of trees, but between NGC, PCGS, ANACS & ICG there have been over 30 MILLION coins graded. And with the vast majority of them - the experts do agree on the grade. But do we ever talk about that ? Of course not - we're too busy lookin at the trees
