DCAM 1960 Franklin at GC sells for 7x Cameo but looks worse.

Walkerlover

Go figure this DCAM shows very little frost on the reverse while the CAM shows much more frost overall. DCAM sells for $716 and CAM sells for $93, No BP included. Allowing for camera distortions how can GC picture be so far off for this to be DCAM! Pictures below !
DCAM first

braddick

Personally, I trust PCGS grading vs. photography.

Walkerlover

@braddick said:
Personally, I trust PCGS grading vs. photography.

But is it possible for a person to rationally bid DCAM money on this coin?

ricko

If there is one thing that this forum has established, beyond doubt or debate, is that coin photography can be incredibly misleading. Cheers, RickO

jmlanzaf

@Walkerlover said:

@braddick said:
Personally, I trust PCGS grading vs. photography.

But is it possible for a person to rationally bid DCAM money on this coin?

Yes. It's in a DCAM holder.

Go look at the 1796 cent thread and look at the Stack's photos, the True Views and the GC photos.

Cameonut

@Walkerlover
If I cannot view the coin in person, I get pretty picky when I buy cameos on line with unfamiliar photos.

In this case I would not have bid on the dcam coin as there are nicer coins out there and the date is common. Generally, PCGS does a pretty good job with their grading, but they do make mistakes. If it doesn't look quite right, there is a lot less drama if you just pass on it.

Let's face it, there is a continuum between dcam, cam, and brilliant. There are solid coins within each designation, premium in each designation, and dogs in each designation.

joeykoins

@jmlanzaf said:

@Walkerlover said:

@braddick said:
Personally, I trust PCGS grading vs. photography.

But is it possible for a person to rationally bid DCAM money on this coin?

Yes. It's in a DCAM holder.

Go look at the 1796 cent thread and look at the Stack's photos, the True Views and the GC photos.

You're right!
BIG difference.

TrueView

airplanenut

I trust PCGS more than a photo, but the biggest hang-up I have with the photos is that basically as a rule, frost gets accentuated in photos of proofs. I can make coins with nearly no frost look like cameos, barely cameos look like solid DCAMs. To be clear, this isn't something I try to do, but the nature of lighting is such that frost gets accentuated. This can certainly be abused, but sometimes it can actually be quite difficult to avoid this. So with that said, I am somewhat leery of photos showing really nice frost because they can easily be misleading. Just the same, I'm a bit surprised when frost doesn't look impressive. Did the photographer overcorrect to make the photo more accurate, or is the coin really weak in the frost department?

coinkat

Obverse carries the grade. Look at the coin in hand if possible before bidding to avoid a discussion such as this one.

MFeld

@coinkat said:
Obverse carries the grade. Look at the coin in hand if possible before bidding to avoid a discussion such as this one.

The obverse is weighted much more heavily than the reverse with respect to numerical grades. However, when it comes to CAM/DCAM designations, the weighting is much closer to equal.

MFeld

@Walkerlover said:

@braddick said:
Personally, I trust PCGS grading vs. photography.

But is it possible for a person to rationally bid DCAM money on this coin?

Yes, if they’ve seen it in hand or received feedback from a trusted source who has. And maybe, even if they haven’t, but have seen a lot of DCAM designated coins that looked fine in person, but whose images looked like the ones in this thread.