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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Jaelus, post: 1978260, member: 46237&quot;]And yet coin grading has evolved considerably since its inception. Modern coin grading and grading services are still in their infancy compared to the age of the hobby. This is something that is going to continue to be debated and will continue to evolve as improvements to the grading system arise that allow for larger populations of coins to be described accurately.</p><p><br /></p><p>You can determine and describe the condition of any coin, regardless of problems. I can send an AU 55 coin and an AU 55 coin with a scratch to ANACS and they will send them both back slabbed; one as &quot;AU 55&quot; and the other as &quot;AU 55 Details Scratched&quot;. The coins&#039; conditions have been accurately described, and as such they have both been graded.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Aside from MS70s, all coins have problems. Wear on a coin is a type of damage and any damage is a problem. Why grade exclusively based on the amount of damage from wear but not based on other damage? That distinction is arbitrary. The only difference between these types of damage is that we can describe wear using the Sheldon scale, whereas other types of damage are going to be unique to the coin. So to are positive conditions unique to a coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>I don&#039;t like of the idea of assigning coins with negative conditions a lower grade to reflect their market value, or the idea of assigning coins with positive conditions a higher grade to reflect their market value either. I don&#039;t see why some problem coins make it into problem-free slabs now because they look &quot;good enough&quot;. That is a deceptive practice arising from the pressure to grade coins clean.</p><p><br /></p><p>What&#039;s wrong with TPGs simply listing a number to describe the level of damage from wear, and then a listing of conditions (if there are any) so that the coin is accurately described?</p><p><br /></p><p>The pristine AU 55 from my example above would still grade AU 55 problem free. The scratched one would grade AU 55 Scratched. An MS 61 with an old light cleaning that may have made MS 61 problem free would be MS 61 Light Cleaning. An MS 65 with pleasing toning that may have made MS 66 would get MS 65 Positive Toning. Less subjective grading, more accurate descriptions. Better information to let the buyer make an informed choice.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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