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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Insider, post: 7354560, member: 24314&quot;]Grading is subjective.&nbsp; In the 1960&#039;s I found there were fair graders and others.&nbsp; I was lucky to have Joe Gallo (Alexandria, VA) as one of the local dealers.&nbsp; You could take a coin from his stock and it was &quot;correctly&quot; graded for the times. His grading may even have been conservative.&nbsp; Another dealer in the area used toothpaste to clean EVERY coin in his cases!&nbsp; Because of Gallo, and the grading guides at the time, I was self taught.&nbsp; To get an idea of old time grading standards, take a look at the Sheldon Scale published in Penny Whimsy.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I didn&#039;t see much change through the 1970s.&nbsp; At ANACS (ONLY in DC for internal records) and at INSAB (grading opinions to submitters for free if they asked) grading was still very strict as we held the old &quot;standard.&quot;&nbsp; The marketplace did not like it.&nbsp;&nbsp; Not much changed with the publication of the ANA&#039;s Grading Guide and the establishment of the second TPGS in Colorado.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The first big change I noticed came after the publication of the NCI grading guide.&nbsp; I got to read the pre-published galley and I can honestly say it screwed up my personal standards for a while because it explained how coins might be graded more &quot;commercially.&quot;&nbsp; I recommend reading it as James Halperin has the reputation as one of the best graders in the country.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Things had really changed after about 1988 as the two newest TPGS began to loosen their standards.&nbsp; AU&#039;s were called MS because IN SOME COIN SERIES true MS coins by the old standards are VERY RARE!&nbsp; Gold gets the most leeway. </p><p><br /></p><p>So, to answer your question...Gradeflation has been going on IN THE COMMERCIAL MARKET for decades.&nbsp; Any knowledgeable dealer or collector has seen it.&nbsp; All a collector needs to do is to GET WITH THE STATUS QUO and don&#039;t worry about it.&nbsp; All of us old timers with our pants in a knot <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie49" alt=":grumpy:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> that are raging <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie79" alt=":rage:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />about it will soon be dead! <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie40" alt=":dead:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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