Not sure what you mean by "best at grading low grade coins". TPGs just grade a coin based on its appearance...if your coin matches their description of an F12-VF20 coin, then they will label it as such. There is no TPG that is "better" at grading lower grade coins as far as I know.
Low verses high grade doesn't matter...the TPG is what matters. PCGS and NGC are considered the top tier TPGs. As far as I'm concerned, they are the only TPGs who's opinions are good. There was a time when ANACS and ICG was considered decent...but those days are way behind us.
There is a big difference between distinguishing between G4's, G6's, and VG8's, as opposed to MS64's, MS65's, and MS66's, isn't there?
Okay. I was just thinking it might be different deciding whether or not a coin is a G4 or G6, as compared to whether it is an MS64 of MS65.
AS long as you stick with PCGS and NGC you'll do fine . As they are the most consistent graders and the most respected .
There are collectors out there who try to get the lowest grade of a certain coin from the TPGs in a slab, and NOT get it sent back in a body-bag. Ever hear of the "best of the worst"?
I've bought two slabbed coins and taken both of them out of their slabs so that I could put them into their proper places in their coin albums. If I had a G4 1793 cent ($3000), I might leave it in the slab.
There really isn't. There are good TPGs and bad TPGs...but they are consistent across the grading spectrum.
Probably a valid question. Years ago when Coin World ran the same group of coins through each of the TPG's they were all fairly close on the MS coins, but they were all over the place on the few circ pieces submitted. Only one company consistently hit the median grade for each coin and that was Accugrade. The problem is that the services DON'T grade all the series the same way. Some do better on one series while the other does better on another. And while they tend to be consistent on how they grade MS coins, their consistencies are not as good on circulated coins. This is why collectors need to learn to grade themselves.
