The Official CoinTalk Grading Experiment 7

a very clean coin I'll guess 67.

 

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67...clean cheek/fields, no major distractions...still not quite 68

 

I went with 66, but I suspect it may be a 67.

 

Good job, guys. This was a 67, and over half of you got it right! Average guess was 66.3, with 35 guesses.

As many of you mentioned, this is a solid 67. There are very few marks, and even those are just slight ticks. The cheek is smooth and the fields are quite clean.

 

Why should it be graded using tougher standards? Aren't the standards the standard and should be applied the same to all dates?

If you are willing to sell me graded 65's that look like this, I'll happily pay you 66 prices all day long. Find me a 65 that looks like this and feel free to post it here.

 

It’s easy to criticize grading standards when you don’t buy or sell coins.

 

Are you insinuating that CAC is also involved, and implementing market grading standards ?

 

The photos on that 1892-S, MS-64 graded dollar leave me not wanting to trust the full slab shots at all. Ms. Liberty's cheek on the full slab shot almost looks like it's been "thumbed." ("Thumbed" means running your thumb over the cheek of a coin like a Morgan Dollar. The oil in your thumb softens the effect of any marks on the piece and makes look smoother.)

I suspect that the close-ups and real pictures and the slab shots are done on a scanner. A scan can cover up a lot of sins.

 

Obviously, I'm fully aware that they *do* grade according to different standards. I'm asking *should* they?

 

Starting to lose track of whether or not we are guessing the grade or offering our own? Physics, you said "Good job, guys. This was a 67, and over half of you got it right! Average guess was 66.3, with 35 guesses." Probably that beautiful 17 year getting to me, but I thought we were supposed to be grading vs. GTG? Isn't that what you suggested?

I graded this beauty a 65 btw. Don't hate me because of that.

 

You are guessing the grade. Ideally, your grade and the TPG grade should be the same, if the TPG's are grading accurately and you are grading accurately. I've tried to select solid for the grade examples in each thread. Some GTGs are out to make a point about undergraded or overgraded examples - not these threads. These threads are out to show accurately graded coins, so we can see how we compare.

Now, I understand that some people grade differently, and I understand that sometimes people disagree with what the TPG says or does. However, PCGS and NGC are the de-facto standards in the hobby. That's another debate for another day. If you consistently grade 2 points lower than them, you aren't going to do well in the graded-coin market.

So, in my mind "guessing the grade on the label" and "guessing the grade you would give this coin" should be equivalent statements.