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Grading German 5 Mark 1951 to 1974 (Screaming Eagle)
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<p>[QUOTE="NDRob, post: 3555969, member: 103439"]I wrote up a long post with guidance on how to grade these coins, but it did not appear to save. I have comments on both the subject of German/American grade conversions and on the grading of the coins themselves.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Conversions:</b> The chart on Germancoins.com is pretty good, but does not exactly mimic my experience. The Jaeger catalog, "Die Deutschen Muenzen seit 1871", says Stempelglanz is a near perfect coin. It says St is a coin with no defects visible without magnification. It varies from type to type, but that means MS65 and up. I think your more reputable dealers and auction houses, e.g. Kuenker, Franquinet, Teutoburger, WAG, Ritter, etc., will mostly adhere to this standard. St is the highest grade so it can even refer to coins better than MS65, but those coins will often be described with additional superlatives. I find that f.St is roughly MS63-64. Vz-st is AU55-62. Bankfrisch tends to be AU58-63, but I don't like it as a term. Vz is ~AU50-53. SS and below is about right on the chart. They're pretty wide ranges. Germans tend to do a little more of what we would consider market grading and weight eye appeal and the overall look of a coin more heavily.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Grading: </b>This is a tricky series to grade accurately. I think TPGs tend to overgrade circulated coins and undergrade MS coins, and both are for roughly the same reason. The coin's design is fairly low relief and composed of mainly fields. To get super high grades MS65 and up, the fields have to be very clear and clean. When you coins is mostly fields, that's a tall order. MS66s tend to look almost perfect with MS67s being very very difficult to attain. The 66-67 split on this series reminds me of how it is on smaller coins rather than larger ones like Morgans. Because the design is simple, there aren't a ton of great wear markers like on a lot of US coins. I usually look to the fields to differentiate between VF, XF, and AU. I look for bag marks, circulation marks, and luster. If a coin circulates organically, the wear and the marks should go hand in hand. I'll look at luster the most in determining AU. The open space between the 5 and the circular lettering on the obverse is one of the first things to degrade. If the luster is gone in that area and is only in the protected regions between the letters, you're in the low AU range and possibly choice XF.</p><p><br /></p><p>Even if you know how to grade these coins, is it worth submitting them to a TPG? In most cases it isn't. The only coin worth grading in circulated grades is the key date, 1958-J. For common dates, 1968-1974, you need the coin to be in the MS66-67 range to be worth it from a financial point of view. On the rarer dates, 1956-1960, then lower MS like 63-64 are worth grading. The middling, uncommon dates are somewhere between those two. I personally have a full set and haven't bothered to send any in for certification myself. I own more than a handful certified examples, but I purchased them that way.</p><p><br /></p><p>Also, be careful when using the NGC price guide or the Krause manual. They only list dates in XF and MS and it can be tempting to think AU coins are worth more than they are. The XF prices tend to apply to AU coins more than MS prices in this series.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="NDRob, post: 3555969, member: 103439"]I wrote up a long post with guidance on how to grade these coins, but it did not appear to save. I have comments on both the subject of German/American grade conversions and on the grading of the coins themselves. [B]Conversions:[/B] The chart on Germancoins.com is pretty good, but does not exactly mimic my experience. The Jaeger catalog, "Die Deutschen Muenzen seit 1871", says Stempelglanz is a near perfect coin. It says St is a coin with no defects visible without magnification. It varies from type to type, but that means MS65 and up. I think your more reputable dealers and auction houses, e.g. Kuenker, Franquinet, Teutoburger, WAG, Ritter, etc., will mostly adhere to this standard. St is the highest grade so it can even refer to coins better than MS65, but those coins will often be described with additional superlatives. I find that f.St is roughly MS63-64. Vz-st is AU55-62. Bankfrisch tends to be AU58-63, but I don't like it as a term. Vz is ~AU50-53. SS and below is about right on the chart. They're pretty wide ranges. Germans tend to do a little more of what we would consider market grading and weight eye appeal and the overall look of a coin more heavily. [B]Grading: [/B]This is a tricky series to grade accurately. I think TPGs tend to overgrade circulated coins and undergrade MS coins, and both are for roughly the same reason. The coin's design is fairly low relief and composed of mainly fields. To get super high grades MS65 and up, the fields have to be very clear and clean. When you coins is mostly fields, that's a tall order. MS66s tend to look almost perfect with MS67s being very very difficult to attain. The 66-67 split on this series reminds me of how it is on smaller coins rather than larger ones like Morgans. Because the design is simple, there aren't a ton of great wear markers like on a lot of US coins. I usually look to the fields to differentiate between VF, XF, and AU. I look for bag marks, circulation marks, and luster. If a coin circulates organically, the wear and the marks should go hand in hand. I'll look at luster the most in determining AU. The open space between the 5 and the circular lettering on the obverse is one of the first things to degrade. If the luster is gone in that area and is only in the protected regions between the letters, you're in the low AU range and possibly choice XF. Even if you know how to grade these coins, is it worth submitting them to a TPG? In most cases it isn't. The only coin worth grading in circulated grades is the key date, 1958-J. For common dates, 1968-1974, you need the coin to be in the MS66-67 range to be worth it from a financial point of view. On the rarer dates, 1956-1960, then lower MS like 63-64 are worth grading. The middling, uncommon dates are somewhere between those two. I personally have a full set and haven't bothered to send any in for certification myself. I own more than a handful certified examples, but I purchased them that way. Also, be careful when using the NGC price guide or the Krause manual. They only list dates in XF and MS and it can be tempting to think AU coins are worth more than they are. The XF prices tend to apply to AU coins more than MS prices in this series.[/QUOTE]
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