As a younger numismatist I don't have much exposure to grading tends over the years. Seeing a lot of submissions lately I've noticed PCGS seems to be a little more strict and are really cracking down on toning. For example, lately there's been a lot of eBay sellers that are artificially toning copper cents with cleaning solution. PCGS has put a stop to many of these submissions where as I see NGC letting even blatant fakes through. I'm interested in other tends that you all have seen or experienced. Mainly: -Are there periods where ANACS, NGC, or PCGS were overly aggressive with grading? -Are there years where companies were more relaxed? -Are there specific coins or trends that seemed to get special treatment on years? -Or are there holders that seemed to show a difference in grading quality? I'm going to make a kind of timeline or Excel sheet for what everyone compiles. If there are comments you agree with please like them so I can get a feel for whats consistently been seen. Thanks!
Both grading services go through cycles of one-ups-man-ship, which probably won't change until one of them no longer exists.
Can you elaborate, like is there a specific slab that is known for being over graded. Or is it just so variable over such a small time that its not able to be tracked?
By which I assume you mean AT copper, and not counterfeit coins. Yes to all the above. Any specific examples will be anecdotal. Nailing down tendencies for specific slab styles is hard because of attrition of older slabs that could have received a higher grade at any time since first being graded. It would be a better exercise to look at a lot of coins in many generations of holders and get a feel for which coins are a better buy. The only generalization I'll make about old holders is that if the holder is 20+ years old, beat up, and doesn't contain a copper coin that isn't brown, chances are it's not high end.
I feel that's the consensus. I thought maybe it would been something like ANACS 2nd gen was way too hard on Morgan's and PCGS 2012 was giving a whole grade to every copper coin. But it's not that easy ha
Is this what you want to hear from us? ANACS old white holders = Morgan dollars were quite often called PL/DMPL, at that time they were also lenient with light cleaning PCGS OGH = generally stricter than today NGC new holders = somewhat stricter across the board than a couple of years ago NGC is stricter with some designations such as “5FS/6FS” with Jeffersons.
Anything that could upgrade has been cracked and submitted, unless someone put it in a safe deposit box long ago and it just came out. It is really a case-by-case issue now. Just because something is in an old holder doesn't mean it is undergraded.
I generally think ANACS blue label holders are somewhat, and sometimes very, generously graded. They hurt their reputation with these.
A few years back I bought an old-holder NGC PL Morgan for what seemed a bargain price. When I went to flip it at a show, I learned that the criteria for PL/DMPL had actually gotten tighter since those early days; the coin I had probably wouldn't make PL if resubmitted. I did eventually flip it on eBay for a reasonable profit.
That’s also my understanding, but there are so many nice PL Morgans in old white ANACS holders, who cares if they’re only PL-like
Lemme put it to you this way. In regard to this specific question - If the coin was graded after 2003, you will have a hard time finding one that was not over-graded. And in the years that followed, the grading standards were loosened even more than they were in 2004, and in each subsequent period loosened yet again. It has gotten so bad that today, the TPG standards are basically a joke. In regard to this specific question - If a coin was particularly scarce or even rare, or more valuable than most, or more popular than most, or had a particular pedigree, then those coins were given much more leniency (over-graded in other words) than any others in their respective series. There were no specific years when this happened, it was true from the very beginning of the TPGs. And still is.
