The Official CoinTalk Grading Experiment 7

How good is CoinTalk compared to the TPGs? Let's find out! Over the next several months, I'll be posting a continuous stream of Guess the Grade threads. I will be using photos from the Heritage auction archives (please do not cheat!).

All you have to do is guess the grade! I will be attaching a poll to each thread. Please select the grade that you think best represents the coin (to avoid bias, please select your grade before viewing the rest of the thread).

Also feel free to post your opinions about the coin, and it would be most educational if you could explain why you chose the grade you did.

In order to give everyone time to respond, I'll reveal the grade Tuesday evening

Around Christmas, I will tally up the results and see how we did. This thread is an offshoot of a recent thread where I compared CT grading to the TPG, seen here: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/how-good-is-cointalk-at-grading.343417/

We're going to cover a wide range of material, and some of it may be out of your wheelhouse. However, if you are a confident grader, you should be able to accurately grade almost any coin.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

MS 66

 

MS67.

 

67+ is my grade. I also believe it would CAC as a 67.

 

I'm at 67 on this one. Been one point low on the last 2 Morgans. Feeling confident on this one. (Can we do a non-Morgan coin for the next one?)

 

That was my plan. I realize more people are comfortable with Morgan's than many other series, so I wanted to build some confidence before we move to something else.

 

I really want to say MS68 on this coin but I think it has just enough imperfections to limit it to high end MS67.

I say MS67 CAC

 

66

 

It’s really clean. I’m at 67

 

MS-66. Very clean, but the hits on the neck and above the wings brought it down from a 67.

 

After perusing some high end pieces, I couldn't believe the difference in the pics provided by the same auction house. In this case, it was Heritage. The slab pics are good, but the close ups make the coin look terrible IMO. This is where the experience in dealing with each auction house's style of photography is so important when bidding. Unless you blindly agree with the slab, or TPGS.
The current bid is $135,000 + BP.


Would anyone think this was MS64 CAC from the close ups ? Be honest. It is hard for me to tell the difference between luster breaks, and scuffs sometimes. I'm learning, but without the TPGS's grade, I wouldn't feel comfortable making purchases until I'm able to see the difference between scuffs. And luster breaks without question.

Edit: FWIW, I'm sure many investors simply go along with the TPGS's grade for accuracy, and from that, go with market value for pricing. Blindly believing the TPGS. We know better, but many don't.

 

I'm going MS65, mainly because of the reverse, but also because the photograph of the obverse, as mentioned above by Johndoe2000, looks optimized. If bidding on it, I'd like to see more than just that one flat photo.

 

I'll be honest, I would have guessed 65.

The sorts of people who buy coins like that are either at the shows and look at the coin in hand, or have a trusted dealer do it for them.

And what you're seeing, based on the bids, is that they are bidding at a 65 level.

 

That looks clean enough for a 67

 

I agree with 65 on the slab shot, but the close up looks like 62/63 at best to me. I'm relatively sure due to the grade, that what I'm seeing is luster breaks, but they look like contact marks in the close up. I need to compare actual scuffed up lower MS coins to ones like I posted to learn the difference if I want to be more accurate at reading the pics.
Thank you for taking the time to do these GTGs

 

The sorts of people who pay that kind of money for single-point differences are insane. But to each his own

 

That's a nice coin! Very clean, "creamy" cheek is the first thing that hits you. Clean fields, some minor issues at the tip of the bust, reverse is great. Strike, luster, eye appeal are all there, too. 67.

 

I'm at '67 too. Phenomenal strike.......

 

And why the devil did you post this coin so danged early in the morning Jason? I don't get up on Sunday till 7:30, catch the local, news, and then watch 'Willie at 8:00. After that (at 9:00) I watch CBS Sunday Morning........Then I took a four and a half (maybe Five) hour drive to the Southern Tier of NY. Post later in the afternoon so I can get my dibs in earlier....