So I have been working on grading with some friends at my coin club and I came up with ELOMS as the top criteria for grading. Here is what I mean: Eye Appeal Luster Originality Marks Strike What do you all think?
M.O.L.E.S Does your coin have moles? I can see this being an easy saying and just funny enough to remember.
I see what you're trying to do, at least as far as the acronym goes, but originality is not a grading criteria. And strike, well, at least when it comes to what the TPGs do - it's not even used most of the time. And in some cases it could be argued that it's deliberately ignored by them. So, question for you. In your club, are you trying to come up with what the top 4 or 5 actually are, and are you trying to define what the TPGs use, or what you guys think they should be ? As for the acronym part of this, I'm not sure you can make one if you use the actual top 4 grading criteria. In order of importance, for MS coins there are 4 primary grading criteria, they are generally considered to be: 1 - quality of luster 2 - eye appeal 3 - contact marks 4 - hairlines That said there are additional grading criteria generally thought to be secondary in nature. They are, and in no particular order: quality of strike, centering, surfaces, planchet quality, die quality, and scratches. So all in all you have 10 grading criteria to work with in order to form some kind of acronym if that is your goal. And of course once you get to circulated coins you have to add in degree of wear as a grading criteria for a grand total of 11 criteria.
Well, if you are looking for an acronym for just those four, John, how about MEHL (Marks, Eye appeal, Hairlines, Luster). Many have posted about the old-time dealer Max Mehl. This would make it a numismatically-relates acronym. Steve
ELOMS was something I came up with after a few of us were working on grading. The others thought it sounded good but didn't say it was definitive by any means. I was just putting out here to ask for opinions. I have read the four you were pointing out and its probably best to just go by those. Although, originality, which I interpret as to whether the coin has been dipped is important.
Belated edit to my post: -related, not -relates. If you want to keep the "O" for originality, use O'MEHL. After all, St. Patrick's day is almost here and EVERYONE is Irish, at least for a day. Steve
Don't take it that I was criticizing your efforts, to the contrary, I applaud your efforts. By posting everything I did I was trying to give you more ammunition with which to work. But the originality part, literally tens of millions of slabbed coins found in collections, let alone raw coins, have been dipped. And almost all of them have toned all over again after they were dipped. Including many of the most colorful and desirable examples that most folks think are original. Ya see, when it comes to whether a coin is original, or not - the best you can ever do is guess.
Isn't that the truth. Originality does play a big part in coin grading. And should play a bigger part in the grading process. I would rather own a nice AU58 with a thick skin on it, than a flashy AU62-64.
