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Message:: [QUOTE="JPeace$, post: 2054439, member: 42727"]Fair enough.  I wasn't in the hobby when either of them were founded.  My primary point was that I for one appreciate what NGC/PCGS brought to the hobby.  Whether they are grading to the ANA standards can be debated, but I'm not the person to do that. So if my info is correct, the ANA published their standards in 1981.  Prior to that, there were some books on grading standards, but nothing was "written in stone".  So who was the "supreme" judge of these standards?  When a collector walked into a coin shop prior to '87, WHO decided the coins grade?  The dealer?  You, the collector?  So who was right?  Wasn't your judgement an interpretation of the ANA standards?  Ditto for the dealer?  I'm sure there were many instances in which the coins grade was debated.  Let's face it, this still goes on today eventhough there are TPG's.  As the saying goes, opinions are like arse holes, everyone has them and they all stink (included for levity). How do you reconcile the problem you've stated:  TPG's not grading to ANA standards?  Seems to me, it's kind of like Tilting at Windmills.  As I see it, you've really only got one choice: learn the ANA standards and buy only those coins that meet your interpretation of them, regardless of what the TPG grade states.[/QUOTE]