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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Lehigh96, post: 1881754, member: 15309&quot;]Richie, I&#039;m sorry but you are just parroting Doug&#039;s misinformation on this subject.&nbsp; I have never heard any other collector or dealer make the claim that PCGS does not follow their published standards other than Doug.&nbsp; At least now I know why he has been using the year 2004 for his claim that the TPG&#039;s drastically changed their grading standards.</p><p><br /></p><p>When you and Doug say that they don&#039;t follow their own standards 100%, what exactly do you mean?&nbsp; The fact is that grading coins is subjective and there are way too many variables involved in grading to create a set of hard and fast rules that will apply to every coin.&nbsp; This is why the grading rules are intentionally ambiguous.&nbsp; The more specific you make the rules, the more exceptions you will need to make to those rules to ensure grading accuracy. </p><p><br /></p><p>Furthermore, people like Doug love to quote the PCGS grading standards as proof that they don&#039;t follow their own rules.&nbsp;&nbsp; For example, in Chapter 1 they write that they use the Sheldon scale of grading (1-70) and then proceed to show the ANA&#039;s version of the Sheldon scale including the definitions for each grade.&nbsp; Once you reach the grades of MS60-MS62, it shows the words &quot;No Wear&quot;.&nbsp; This would seem to indicate that PCGS agrees that an uncirculated coin can&#039;t show traces of wear/friction.&nbsp; But when you reach Chapter 5 (Elements of a Coin&#039;s Grade), PCGS addresses the subject of wear.&nbsp; The first thing they do in this section is address the difference between circulation wear, incomplete strike, roll/bag friction, album slide marks, and cabinet friction.&nbsp; My point is that in order to understand the PCGS standards, one must read the entire book and view the subject matter holistically.&nbsp; Coincidentally, this is how one needs to grade coins when employing market grading, holistically.</p><p><br /></p><p>To my knowledge NGC has never published their grading standards, other than those for modern coins.&nbsp; But since the same guy founded both companies, I would expect both TPGs to have very similar grading standards overall with some notable differences for particular series of coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Paul[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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