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Message:: [QUOTE="John Anthony, post: 1622806, member: 42773"]A lot of guys have told me to take TPG grades with a grain of salt - that on any given day they could go one point one way or another, sometimes more. The grade on a slab is only one variable in the equation of collecting for me, and sometimes a lower grade works to my benefit more than a higher one. I recently acquired a 79-D with great color: neon-blue and honey covering the entire coin, and an abundance of luster. It came with the typical rim chatter discussed in this thread, but it's such a marvelous piece that the chatter is almost a non-issue. If the coin wasn't toned, I probably would have looked right over it as just another example of chattery 70's coinage. In this case though, the lower grade of 65 actually worked in my favor because I could afford the piece - in fact, it was well within my budget, and I'm delighted to own it. The empirical aspects of collecting are important, and that's why in my estimation, this has been such a good thread. But in the final analysis, they have to be balanced with aesthetics. When I was young, I used to collect bright shiny objects, like a cat, with no regard to knowledge or science. Today I need a more sophisticated approach, that examines all the nuances. There's a middle path in there somewhere that I'd like to walk.[/QUOTE]