PCGS grade accuracy?

66
62
63

All 3 seam to meet the minimum detail for FH designation.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Seams are only on clothing.......

 

So, the results are in. So my question is this. Several people called the '17-P as a 58. Well, as you can see from the results it obtained a AU-55 FH. I was blown away when this came back a 55 FH. TO ME, the details rival 63's and 64's I have and in hand it's gorgeous. Even before I sent it in, I had quite a few people tell me it should grade MS. Can anyone, especially the ones that guessed AU-58 on it tell me what I am missing and why you believe it should only get a AU grade? I appreciate the information to help me learn. Thanks.

 

Physics fan and Toughcoins came the closest to nailing the grades. Props to them.

 

They're the best at assessment.......

 

Funny since some of them also claimed a PCGS/CAC coin was overgraded recently from a picture.

 

It graded as AU because it has wear. If you look at her knee, the shield, and the eagle's breast, you can see a slight flattening. In these pictures, it shows up as a slightly different shade of grey. If you rotate it under the light, you will see that the luster seems to "skip" these areas - because they have experienced wear.

Telling AU from MS is sometimes difficult, but in this case PCGS got it correct. A really nice AU may often look like an MS-63 until you examine it more closely.

 

Thank you for the explanation. I appreciate it.

 

I didn’t notice the wear on that first one. But in second glance I’m surprised it wasn’t a 58. And I don’t know enough about SLQs to determine FH

 

I didn't play, but I saw the wear right away on that one, thinking 55-58. You have to know where to look on every series for the first sign of wear. On SLQs, it's Liberty's right knee. It looks flat enough on the 1917 to warrant AU55. The other two seem like 63-64, as graded. Compare the knee with the AU coin and you'll see the difference and never forget it. Another trick I show people in the Morgan dollar class I teach is to stand the coin on edge (even in the slab) on a white piece of paper and look down at it to see how the paper reflects off the coin. If you see a gray band on the knee (tip of bust on a Morgan, vertical head-to-toe on WLH), it's AU.

 

64 FH
63
64

 

I think we're looking for absolutes in a world of opinion.
Grading will never be absolute.

 

Thank you VERY MUCH. This is the type of information I love to learn to help me become a better numismatist.

 

Not really. If you can be right around it consistently or spot on the majority of the time you obviously know the standards they are using to come to the final grade. You wouldn't be able to be accurate if they were completely different things.

You could also watch their Youtube series of grading videos where they go into it some