Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="GDJMSP, post: 117509, member: 112"]Easy answer, if you had a newer edition of the ANA Guide. In 1986 the ANA announced that the standards it was using were too lenient and that stricter more conservative standards were needed. The 3rd edition, containing these stricter standards was published in 1987. Now I will grant you, these stricter standards largely pertained to MS coins. But you would be well served to get an updated edition of the book. But in this case, even the 6th edition has the same wording as you mention above for VF 30. Now read what it says for VF 20. Now since it says the same thing in the 1st edition and the 6th edition I'm willing to bet it says the same thing in the 2nd edition too. And that's the issue - there aren't  details let alone half of them. All that can be seen are the outlines of the leaves. At least none can be seen in those pictures, even when I use a magnifying glass to look at them. Thus my opinion - the coin is in better condition than that described for F 12 but not good enough to make VF 20. Therefore I grade it F 15. The problem is this, when use the grading standards you start at the bottom and work up - not at the top and work down. This is because before you can move up the assumption has to be made that the next higher grade enconpasses not only its own description, but everything included in the next lowest grade's description as well. What that means in this case is that even though it says in the VF 30 description that the bottom row of leaves can be weak with some details visible, then the top row of leaves must be pretty strong with most details visible since at least half of the details in both rows have to be visible for the coin to grade VF 20. Does that make sense ?[/QUOTE]

Create my FREE Account!

Log in or Sign up

Reply to Thread

Useful Searches