For your grading pleasure, a silver bicentennial quarter in a PCGS holder. DON'T LOOK AT THE FILE NAME DOWN IN THE CORNER UNLESS YOU REALLY MUST KNOW. I will post the grade tomorrow evening around this time.
What I find interesting with this grade is the rather large distracting scratch in front of Washington's face.
You know if the point of these threads is to get people to guess the grade, you shouldn't put the grade in the file name of the picture lol...
In order to get a better understanding on the grading of coins by PCGS and NGC, I've visited a German coin dealer with high grade examples of slabbed coins, among them absolutely stunning pieces like a German 5 Mark 1960 J silver coin in MS69 and some early Empire proofs and other more modern coins in MS67 down to MS65. Based on these coins, where high grade MS67 hasn't shown any damage to the naked eye I fail to understand how this Washington quarter can even come close to MS67?!
Well first you are looking at pictures versus coin in hand and the attached pictures might not show the luster. I can see where you might not even be able to compare coin types either. My first impression of the coin was 66, but still 67 is on the range based off the picture. I do not look at enough washington quarters to really have a feel for some of the ms grades. Just my opinion.
It's not about the luster that isn't shown, it's about the damage that is despite. I expect continuity in methodology for the gradings, slight variances are one thing outright use of different standards another case altogether.
I don't see any damage and in the second set the OP says most scratches are on the slab. And at a 67 grade I can see where a few bag hits are acceptable.
There "is the rather large distracting scratch in front of Washington's face", furthermore I see rub and some of the scratches on Washington's face are indeed on the coin.
I see what you are saying, but they look like bag marks. On some of the coins I collect(or have collected) it would depend on where the hits were and the distraction they might cause. Then luster and such helps me determine if I like the coin at the grade - I know lots of Morgans I would skip(if I collected them) because the hits from 63 to 65 are distracting. This is a case of where I would need to see the coin in hand to really judge it - pictures alone can be very misleading.
