A complaint some people have about the TPGs, is that slabs just list the grade, and not how the graders came up with that grade. I think it would be a good idea if grading services listed this on their website. Example: NGC(to pick one) 1964 50 cents-PF 68 UCAM #123456-789. You type in the serial number #123456-789 on their website. This page comes up: Heavy frost and mirror fields, slight hairlines in the lower right field on the obverse. I think that if a grading company offered a service like this it would be very good for the hobby as a whole. Charlie
In a way they already do - buy their grading book. It will tell you what coins will get a given grade and why.
As a darkside with "No" slabbed coins Can you clarify for me Does each of, or any of, the TPG companies have published grading books?
Yes, both PCGS and NGC have books currently in print that describe their grading standards. I don't know about ICG and ANACS and I don't remember the title of the NGC book, but the PCGS book is "The Official Guide to Coin Grading and Counterfeit Detection" by JW Dannreuther, edited by SA Travers (Currently in its second edition).
Yeah, I have the PCGS book. I am talking about a short explanation of why each individual coin got the grade it did. Charlie
So am I. I mean I understand your point, but if know how to grade well you know why a coin was given the grade it has just by looking at it. If you do not know how to grade very well all you have to do is look in the book for the criteria for a given grade and again you know why. What you are suggesting would require a huge database, it would take each grader (there are usually 3 of them) significant time to note the reasons for his grade, and it would require a tech even more time to enter all the data for each coin. This would likely increase the cost of having a coin graded by a factor of 5 or more. It's not an idea that I see as being very practical.
