I acquired a 1924 British India 2 Annas coin today and the observe and in much worse condition than the reserve. I was wondering how people grade coins with vastly different grades on the observe and reserve. The observe looks like VG8 and the reserve look like VF20. I was thinking maybe average them to like to a F15, but I really have no idea how other people approach this situation, so any ideas would help.
Split grades is always a problem. I always, (and feels its the only true solution), simply denote it as such, like your example would be a vg/vf. To average it is unfair, since it does not adequately describe the coin. What if the buyer wanted at least a f for a portrait set? Calling that coin a net f is not correct. The only other solution to me would be to grade a coin the lowest of either side. But, what with the vast gradeinflation going on nowadays, everything is xf+++ nowadays, right?
First, grading is subjective so there's often leeway given in some cases. As I understand it US grading goes with the grade of the worse side. BUT CASE 1 - If the obverse is the better side there is a tendency to slide the grade upward in it's favor. Obverse = VF-20 Reverse = F-10 Overall = F-15 BUT Obverse = F-10 Reverse = VF-20 Overall = F-10 CASE 2 - High value coins tend to get grades at or close to the better side. Bunches of other exceptions.
If a coin has a big scratch on 1 side, is the whole coin damaged ? If a only 1 side of a coin has been harshly cleaned, is the whole coin damaged ? If a coin only has wear on 1 side, is the coin still MS ? If a coin only has AT on 1 side, is the whole coin still considered AT ? If a coin has a test cut or a nasty rim ding on 1 side, is the whole coin damaged ? The list goes on. A coin is made up of 3 sides - obverse, reverse, and edge. And those 3 sides comprise a whole, and you can't take 1 or 2 of the 3 sides away from the others. The coin is one single thing, so if any part of it has a problem, then the coin is a problem coin no matter what. The same thing applies to grading, as it must because the coin is just 1 single thing, not 2 or 3 separate things. And since it is 1 single thing it can only have 1 single grade. And because of that the maximum grade can only be based on the worst side. Now if you wish to describe a coin verbally and describe it accurately, then yes you may describe it as VF/F or VF/XF or 63/65. But that is its description, not its grade, for there can only be 1 grade.
The one other thing to think about is WHY. The coin you described is not terribly common. Things Doug talked about are very common, scratches on one side, nicks, cleaning, etc. However, coins circulate and as such usually all sides get wear. Having the obverse worn down to VG and the reverse VF is unusual. In that instance I would look very carefully and see if possibly the obverse was struck weakly, or with a worn die. This difference matters in US collecting at least. It can be noted on ancients, but we really do not care why the detail is not there. In US grading though a worn die obverse might be graded as a VF worn die.
With MS coins, and even with some AU and XF coins, it may be possible to attribute a weak strike being the reason for lack of detail in a particular area of the coin. But typically when a coin is weakly struck both the obv and the rev are equally affected due to the nature of striking. In other words, if strike is weak on one side then it must by necessity be weak on the other side too because you cannot have more pressure on one side than you do the other. A coin being struck with a worn die is a completely different thing. For if one die is worn and the other die is not, then the side with the worn die is going suffer lack of detail while the other side does not. Again, because the pressure on both sides is equal when the coin is struck. Uneven wear patterns, though maybe not common, do happen. So you can have a circulated coin with more wear on one side than there is on the other. And in most cases once wear has reached the XF point it is going to be very difficult if not impossible to tell if a coin was weakly struck. That is because once a coin has that much wear then the indicators of a weak strike are worn away because a weak strike typically only affects the high points.
Good post Doug. Yes, you are right, I was really only talking about worn dies more than weak strike. However, you should talk to many dealers and even TPGers if you are saying lack of details cannot be attributed to a weak strike after the grade of XF.
Thanks for the advice everyone! I added it to my spreadsheet as VG. I've only been collecting for around 10 months so its not a situation I've come across before.
As an EAC member and very active collector of old copper, I can tell you we do grade both sides separately all the time. However, with other coins, I'd say the side with the lowest grade is the coins grade. Grades aren't averaged out.
There are exceptions to just about any rule. Unfortunately some people seek to use exceptions as applying to coins to which they do not apply, in other words they try to use an exception as a generality instead of what it is, an exception. They do this because it provides them with an excuse for assigning a grade higher than the coin deserves. And unfortunately, too many people swallow that excuse hook, line & sinker. An example of the kind of exception I am talking about would be an MS coin where one side of the coin has full or nearly full detail. But the other side of the coin has XF or even VF detail due to an extremely worn die being used on that 1 side. There are cases where this did happen, but it happened rarely. And usually those exceptions are known as rare a variety by those who specialize in that particular series, but are otherwise unknown to the general public. A few of those have been posted here on the forum over the years.
