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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 4464040, member: 112&quot;]I only used the numbers (8.5 etc) for purposes of illustration, to get across the idea I was trying to express in other words. And I can&#039;t give you a number for pre-&#039;87 because it would be comparing apples to oranges. You simply cannot compare the two grading systems to each other because they are completely different things. When the market grading system was invented they took all the grading criteria that had been being used by technical grading, and then added several more grading criteria that had never been used before. In effect they doubled the number of individual grading criteria. </p><p><br /></p><p>The history of coin grading goes like this. It was in the late 1890s that collectors first started discussing coin grading seriously. But it took until 1948 when Sheldon wrote his work on grading large cents, but his work was for large cents <b>only</b> ! It could not be used on any other coins ! Then, it was not until 1958 that Brown and Dunn came along and wrote the very first book on coin grading, and that system was for all coins. </p><p><br /></p><p>Then in the early 1970s ANACS came along and that&#039;s when technical grading first began being developed. That was actually done by another forum member, Insider. Then, in 1977 the ANA published their first book of coin grading standards, which was also technical grading. But it was different than the standards that had been being used by the early ANACS. The ANA continued to use technical grading until 1986 when they created the market grading system, their book containing the grading criteria for that system was published the following year in 1987. Since then there have been several more editions of the ANA book published, but the specific grading criteria for each coin has stayed the same in all editions since 1987 - with 2 minor exceptions in the 6th edition published in 2005. Those exceptions to 2 coins and only 2 coins, Indian Head Cents ans Buffalo Nickels, and only in 1 grade for each of those 2 coins. All other grading criteria for individual grades, even for those 2 coins, stayed exactly the same as they always been. Then in 2013 the ANA published their 7th edition, but every grading criteria in that edition stayed the same as those in the 2005 edition. </p><p><br /></p><p>Along the way, PCGS published the first edition of their grading book in 1997. They published the 2nd edition of their book in 2004. But the grading criteria used in each one, such as they are, are NOT the same. Their standards were loosened in the 2004 book. That said, PCGS no longer even follows the grading standards in their own 2004 book ! The standards they use today are much looser than what they were then ! And if you read the book and look at the coins they grade today it&#039;s patently obvious that is the case.</p><p><br /></p><p>And it must also be noted that the TPGs have never used the ANA grading standards. Every TPG has always used their own, unique, set of grading standards. And of all the TPGs, PCGS is the only one that has ever published any grading standards at all.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Of all the different grading standards that have ever been used none of them can be compared to each other because they are all different.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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