Graded Coins

Post anything about coin grading holders, questions, images, facts announcements. If it's in, or about, or is a coin holders this is where to post it.

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SensibleSal66
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Graded Coins

#1 Unread post by SensibleSal66 »

What is it that sometimes a Coin will be graded as a VF and other times it might say XF ? Does it depend on the company? I might need this , the ANA book : https://www.amazon.com/s?k=The+Official ... nb_sb_noss
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Re: Graded Coins

#2 Unread post by Earle42 »

Sal, its b/c grading is not a science. Refer to Daniel's many vids showing the inconsitensies.
I remember these companies starting up. The general impression I got form the collectors and dealers I knew was that the companies were snake oil salesmen wanting to make money off of the coin hobby. These self proclaimed experts set themselves up as THE authorities. We saw them as being ridiculous, greedy, and only for (this is what we said - its not a negative statement - its just fact) suckers. We also joked that one day a money making scheme would be devised to have people pay other experts to rate the grades given y the slabbing experts. We also said we knew (again - not a negative - just a fact that we said back then) no one could ever be dumb enough to be suckered into this kind of scheme.
*sigh*
Until the internet, slabs had a harder time of being accepted in the hobby for what they claimed to be. The attitude of non-US collectors was one of what we also said back at the start: "Why should I pay good money for someone to do what I can figure out for myself?"

When the internet came out, eBay started up, and all of a sudden, newbies were inundated with a new market where it was common to see many slabs and credibility started to rise. Without doing much homework, people just started to accept the companies with an attitude that set the hearts of these TPGS aflutter.
So what happens next? Well, of course. Playing on the human psychological need for an expert opinion became not good enough. So people started to pay other experts to evaluate how well the slabbing experts had done their job - enter the CAC sticker fad. So now we have CAC (better expert experts) evaluating the grading experts (self proclaimed more expert experts than the non-certified dealer/collector is), and people pay good money for this.
How long before:
1977-D $1 Obv Slab MS65+CACOPT213.jpg
Here is a post I did with pics on another forum with slab pics and quotes from PCGS and examples showing otherwise:
http://goccf.com/t/346174#2967242
And here is an excellent essay by someone who was an initial donor when the TPGs started up:
NOTE THIS IS THE CORRECTED 2nd LINK
https://www.coincommunity.com/forum/top ... _ID=130186
The artificial market made by slabs des allow for people to finance their hobby by cherry picking and re-submissons.
And while all of this is negative sounding, I want to clarify one important point:

A hobby is about FUN. If a person likes slabs then great! Go for it. It is just my hope that people who like to collect slabs will take the time to understand, before putting out masses f money, the truth that TPGS are not THE authorities, but in fact are a very optional service alongside the hobby. The values associated with the coins in the slab disappear when the coin is broken out, because even resubmitted to the same company, a coin is never guaranteed to be graded the same again! Slabs and labels are not about the coins themselves - but the plastic, paper label, and opinion (that day and time) of the grader(s).
Last edited by Earle42 on Sun Sep 13, 2020 6:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Common grading company shortcomings & resulting co$tly mi$take$ to collectors (using Kennedy No FG halves):
https://tinyurl.com/y7rksxu8

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Re: Graded Coins

#3 Unread post by SensibleSal66 »

Wow, thanks for the reply .It was a little long ( had to take dinner break ), lol, but it was great to see some of the truth and I love the Sticker artwork on the slab. widegrin
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Re: Graded Coins

#4 Unread post by Earle42 »

I apologize for the length, but as the old saying goes, anything worth doing/knowing will take time. I took a good deal of time and did a lot of research before I ever made an online comment about slabbing companies faults.
Common grading company shortcomings & resulting co$tly mi$take$ to collectors (using Kennedy No FG halves):
https://tinyurl.com/y7rksxu8

How much squash would a sasquatch squash if a sasquatch would squash squash?

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