hone your grading skills -- Eisenhower dollar

To my eye, there are too many nicks/scratches to go higher than MS-62 or possibly MS-63...

I know Ikes are tough and the really high grade ones are few and far between. So, knowing that PCGS will take that into account, they probably gave it MS-65.

 

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It is so flagrantly obvious that this coin is not a proof. It seems like you have been quite rude to the members here, and that is unneccesary. If you look at a proof ike dollar, you should be able to clearly see the difference.

 

Hi Delay
You are welcome here the same as everyone else, but remember you have what 10 post and speedy has over 6,ooo post, he does know a little about coins. And welcome to our forum you will learn alot here.:hail:

 

As a matter of fact he has been banned, so let's stop posting responses to his idiocy.

 

Sorry Roy I did not know.

 

Most of you guys have no idea how PCGS grades Eisenhowers. :hammer: I'll post the answer tomorrow...Mike

 

I don't know much about Ike's but with those marks on the front I would guess MS-63/64. But, based on your comment and my minimual knowledge of how these coins are graded-my "shot in the dark" guess is that everyone has undergraded it according to what PCGS thinks. Therefore, I'm going to say MS-67 for the PCGS grade.

 

Okay . I'm going to throw out an opinion before we get the answer about this coin.Many of you will not agree with this but here goes. If the grade is above MS65 then there is something wrong at PCGS. If the rationale behind this is that this date is somehow weakly struck or is just not a date where you don't get many clean coins then I say that's just too bad. That just means there are no or very few MS67/68 specimens. Standards for coin grading should be adhered to and not altered because of a certain type of coin , the coins date or who the former owners might have been. This should be the case for this coin. It is nowhere near MS67/68 and thus should be graded as such. We'll wait to see the results.

 

PCGS graded the coin MS 66.

I think you guys are mistaking technical grading with market grading. PCGS does not technical grade, they market grade. In a sense, they rank coins, not grade them...

As some of you pointed out, Ikes are practically impossible to find with clean surfaces -- all of them show bag/contact marks. The difference between a 66 and a 65 or 64 are generally not contact marks but rather luster, which this coin has in spades but which is also difficult to judge from pictures.

All that being said, if I were to start a grading company, this coin would grade MS 64.

Thanks for all the comments and guesses. Take care....Mike

 

Mike , thanks for your thoughts. Before I say anything else can you explain the difference between technical and market grading , terms I am not familiar with.

 

Technical grading is strictly grading a coin based solely on the merits of the coin and it attributes, whereas market grading is very much different. Market grading is grading based upon how the marketplace values a particular coin. In this case because of the size of the Ike dollar it is exceptionally rare to be mark free and the grading companies know this (they've graded thousands of them or more) as well as the high end collectors of that series. If you are a collector and you want the best MS Ike there is you may find out that the best coin only has a technical grade of MS67, but since it is the finest known it will be very expensive. Market grading would allow that MS 67 to be graded MS69 because that is how the market values the finest known piece and then they would rank the coins (like Mike said) below that and (regardless of their technical grade) they will be assigned market grades. It seems overly complicated, but it really isn't and all the grading companies do it, so it is worthwhile to understand why that coin (which is a technical MS64 based on it's owner's inspection) is graded and priced as a MS66.

 

Troll .... Thanks for that information. I find it very useful in expaining this coin and others. I don't agree with what the TPG'S are doing but that's just my opinion. To market grade these coins at higher MS values than they technically are is plain and simple fraud in my mind. The way I look at it the grades should be that of the coin , not the market. The values of the marketplace should be adjusted to fit the real grading of the coin. In other words if the coin is technically an MS65 that is the grade that should be assinged to the coin and the prices should be paid accordingly. If this was done ( and it's already too late to change it ) you would pay a higher price for the MS65 coin instead . Oh well , too late to change what's already being done by the TPG'S. I guess SGS is using a more radical version of market grading !!!! Thanks again for the info.

 

There are plenty of people who agree with you...

 

Troll hit the nail on the head with respect to market -vs- technical grading. I could have not said it better myself.

I'm not sure that I would go so far to call market grading a fraud, but it certainly should raise some eyebrows...

More importantly, it should impact which coins in which holders in which grades you choose to buy. For me, personally, I do not collect top population moderns. I feel there is too much "false value" at this grade (not to mention they are relatively expensive in comparison to thier "just a bit lower quality" bretheren). For my Eisenhower dollar collection, I choose the next lower grade -- in this case MS 66. For my Franklin half collection, it was MS 64 FBL. I then find the nicest one I can -- buy the coin not the holder. How you make your choices is, of course, completely up to you.

Take care...Mike

 

Is this why some coins from major collections get a much higher grade than is deserved by the major grading services?

 

Mike
In my opinion major collections do get a higer grade from the top t p g it's all about the money in my opinion.

 

Hmmm, I think I agree with GDJMSP on this one because upon furthur review, and correct me if i'm wrong, market grading is mostly for higher ecehlon coins such as this Ike Dollar, which bumps it from MS-64 to 66, a big leap in price for sure but not much difference in condition. meanwhile coins from major collections go from VF-20 to AU-50 which is a huge difference in condition. I think market grading is all messed up though. As Bill Belichick likes to say "it is what it is", not better because its rare in that condition.