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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Insider, post: 5179233, member: 24314&quot;]I just spoke to the owner of our company to confirm how we grade coins at ICG and this discussion is an excellent place to post.&nbsp; First a few caveats... </p><p><br /></p><p>I have been unable to grade coins by my strict technical standards at any service I&#039;ve worked for after leaving the first TPGS at INSAB in DC. </p><p><br /></p><p>At PCI (green, red, blue labels ONLY) we were strict graders as proven by all the dealers/collectors who told us so and who commonly cracked out our &quot;problem&quot; coins and had them straight graded by the big two. </p><p><br /></p><p>The reason for this post is to explain why you should NEVER send one of our slabs to cross at PCGS, ANACS, or NGC.&nbsp; That said...</p><p><br /></p><p>There is a &quot;gimmick&quot; used by all the TPGS.&nbsp; It is called &quot;Market Acceptable.&quot;&nbsp; It is a moving non-standard that depends on many things such as the coin type, age, value, etc.&nbsp; Today, I&#039;m grading a large number of mid-date cents in F to AU.&nbsp; I&#039;m looking up attributions for free on some with interesting characteristics that make them easy to find.&nbsp; Unfortunately, many of the coins have a tiny amount of corrosion, scratches, edge damage, etc. - all common things on the typical circulated Large cent.&nbsp; The coin that got me to show my grade (details) to the owner was an 1857 in AU-58 that was very lightly buffed (hairlined to most) on the reverse that was hardly visible (IMHO, most collectors couldn&#039;t tell) unless the coin was held in the &quot;right&quot; orientation to the light.&nbsp; My first reaction was to &quot;give-a-bone-to the major dealer customer; but I stopped.&nbsp; I don&#039;t play favorites and this is a coin I would sell as an AU if I were a dealer because IMO, the coin is &quot;market acceptable.&quot;&nbsp; <b><span style="color: #b30000">BUT IT IS NOT</span></b>.&nbsp; That&#039;s because &quot;market acceptable&quot; does not exist for us.&nbsp; When I straight grade this coin for ANY of our customers including this dealer, what happens next in many cases is this:&nbsp; The customer, who knows the coin market tries for a cross at another service.&nbsp; Of course it will not cross because ICG slabbed a &quot;cleaned&quot; coin.&nbsp; Yet, coins worse that this are commonly found straight graded in TPGS slabs.&nbsp; &quot;Market Acceptable&quot; is different for each service.&nbsp; Our owner confirmed that &quot;Homey-Don&#039;t-Play-Dat-Game&quot; in Tampa!&nbsp; I was told to continue to grade the coins as we see them.&nbsp; No junk goes into our holder.&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie10" alt=":oops:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> We&#039;ll, no TPGS is perfect.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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