New "top pop" coins and how they got there.

About a week ago, I submitted a PCI brown label 1897 V nickel to PCGS. It has rainbow target toning and is literally the most gorgeous and flawless 1897 V nickel I've ever seen. The PCI grade was MS65. I happily paid $400 for it. I grade the coin MS67 and perhaps 67+, which would make it the lone finest known. I submitted it in the holder without cracking it out, but wrote on the form "treat as raw," meaning they'll crack it out for me and place it in a flip before it enters the grading room. (I didn't crack it out because I had just bought it 20 minutes earlier before I took it over to the PCGS table for submitting). My question for @Insider and anyone else is: Typically, for a coin to become a new top pop, does it need to be resubmitted several times? The only "newly discovered top pops" I know of are the shipwreck gold coins that went up for auction recently. *Now, I realize I am not the best grader in the world by any stretch of the imagination, but I believe in this coin. I don't have a picture of my coin yet, but will post a trueview in a few weeks when it comes in. In the meantime, feel free to debate the question surrounding it. To frame the question another way: Are TPG graders hesitant to assign a new top pop grade for a coin? If so, why?

Here is one of the 3 known MS67's. (There is on in NGC CAC, and 2 in PCGS at that grade, according to the pop report). This is not my coin, and images are from Heritage.

 

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Of course. Without having the current pop top coin(s) in front of them, they have to stake their and their company's reputations on disrupting the condition rarity market by saying that the coin in question is the best there is.

 

@C-B-D

I don't know how much of a role "numismatic politics" plays in grading such submissions, but I hope you are successful. Please post the results when you get them.

Chris

 

I am not sure that I would grade that 1897 Liberty Nickel as an MS-67. I see small "carbon spots" which are one of factors that hold these coins back. Sometimes colorful toning seems to add a point to the grade. I suppose that reflects the market, but from the technical viewpoint, it should not be a factor.

As for how you submit a coin, rightly and wrongly, I have always thought that submitting a coin to PCGS in somebody else's holder starts you off with two strikes. I think that this is especially true if you send it to them in an NGC holder. The two companies don't like each other, and you can detect that if you have even been to one of their FUN luncheons. It takes guts to crack out a coin, but I found that's what you had to do if you were looking for an upgrade. I've never done a crossover so I can't speak to that, but I think the concept is similar.

 

I never care about anything EXCEPT putting my personal grade on a coin and looking for reasons to "Detail" a coin. Lot's of folks try to get coins past us after their coin fails at the top two services.

Very often the finalizer will change my grade on a coin simply because my grade did not reflect the "commercial" value of the coin.

 

No I don't think it does, but sometimes it helps.

Probably not. Unthroning a pop-top has no effect on the grading service. If anything it might make people think they are becoming more lenient and encourage submissions. And I don't believe the graders would have the current pop-tops listing in front of them or memorized so they would grade the coins based on what they see, not on what prior coins have graded.

 

They have current populations and pricing resources available to them. If a coin merits dethroning a current pop top, this provides the "are you sure" prompt needed to make sure it really does.

 

If they do they shouldn't. The coin needs to stand on its own. What its value is, or whether it would become a new pop-top should not influence his decision on the grade.

 

Good luck!!!

 

Best wishes on a 67.

 

Probably get a 64 and I'll be crying about what an awful grader I am.

 

Can't wait to see the Trueviews and yours when you get it in hand. I think that the coin should be graded on it's own merits. Other top pop coins shouldn't influence the decision.

 

In my opinion and I'm no expert, it shouldn't grade less than a 65.

 

Just to clarify, the coin in the pics above is not my coin. It's one of the two MS67's PCGS has already graded. I didn't get a chance to snap pics before submitting it.

 

How’s the strike on yours?

That coin in the OP is hammered.. I like V nickels but haven’t found “the one” yet.

 

I have to go off memory now. But as I graded it, luster was gem plus, strike was gem plus, and color/eye appeal was off the charts. No idea what PCGS will say, but I'm expecting a 66 from them, for some reason. Intuition, I suppose.

 

Thanks, I missed that. I was too taken by the photo of the coin.

 

Good luck

 

No it does not