Are there such things as grading standards?

IrishMike

I've often heard this bandied about that there is some " grading standard etched in stone" that we should all know. I read a comment by Q. Bowers today that sums up my feelings, "there are no such things as grading standards only grading interpretations.

nwcs

There are no grading standards, but there are grading guidelines. But until there is a way to systematize the grading process, there can be no true standards.

FC57Coins

<< <i>There are no grading standards, but there are grading guidelines >>



Two problems are that 1, every coin is unique and doesn't always easily fall into a given category, and 2 each company follows their own guidelines. I think on this board we have some of the toughest graders in the hobby.

Frank

BigD5

I think most collectors abide, or try to abide by the ANA Guidelines. Of course the interpretation of those guidelines is a whole seperate issue. Pcgs tweaked things a bit, so did NGC. Heck we all do, but their opinion matters more than mine, IN THE MARKETPLACE. For my personal collection, I don't give a hoot (for the most part) what the services say, but when it comes time to sell.............as much as anyone can try to deny it, the grading services opinion matters quite a bit.
I still think assigned grades don't mean that much when purchasing. How much the coin costs, in comparison to what you believe the value of the coin to be is the final determining factor. Sounds simple enough, unfortunately it's not that simple.

kranky

There's an old saying in the computer field - "The great thing about standards is there are so many of them." If I want to get people to buy my brand of Widgets, I can write up a white paper that defines the kranky standard for Widget interoperation, call it the Widgiface X40.2 standard, then advertise that all my Widgets are "Widgiface X40.2 compliant". If potential buyers don't know squat about the world of Widgets, that sounds impressive.

In coins, anyone is free to define their own standard for grading. People could actually live with different standards, as long as there was consistency. If my standard is two points looser than yours, we could still work together, since as long as we are both consistent we'll adjust for the differences. Unfortunately, we'll never have consistency, since we have split the hairs too fine in the world of grading MS coins. We could have had it with fewer MS grades, but it's too late now.

nwcs

That's true. In the computer field a standard is the LAST resort! Or it is an attempt by one company to strongarm the industry into licensing their product after the company bullied the standards org into adopting their technology.

I don't know if there is a solution that would solve all the problems. Fewer grades, more grades, etc. just can't solve it. In the end, the coin still has to stand on its own merits and desirability.

Fairlaneman

If all coins within a given grade looked exactly the same a standard would be easy to establish. Looks as though I'm in La La Land with this hope as probably no two coins look exactly the same. Interpretations certainly sounds correct.

Ken

Bear

Frank - Not only tough graders on this Forum, but mean too.

We even got a cigar smoking dog here.

DHeath

Mike,

Great post, and I'll admit the services are very confusing in their interpretation, and plenty inconsistent. One thing I'm amused at is that grading standards are really pretty much like our language. What is acceptable is whatever common usage is at the time. Webster knows that, and cannonizes his product based on common usage. This board is full of pretty tough graders, but in truth we (collectors) help set the grading standard by dictating to the services what is acceptable every time we purchase a coin. We all know that not all AU58's are created equal. That is one reason a meaningful price guide is wishful thinking. For a while, the illusion of a homogenous product based on consistently graded slabs fooled the collector community, but I don't know many collectors now who will purchase an expensive coin without a look or a good return policy, regardless of the holder. Maybe one day we can agree on a simpler scale that measures only the coins beauty. The services all eventually bend to our will, or they simply fall from favor. We as purchasers are the ones who have demanded more grades and tighter standards in an effort to get a better description of what our sight unseen purchases look like. IMO

UncleJoe

There are grading standards but they only seem to work for circulated coins.

MS coins delve into the realm of "eye appeal" and "market grading" which in my opinion are sometimes much to subjective.

It's exactly this reason that I don't do MS.

Joe.

IrishMike

In a paragraph of the same article, Bowers states that he has seen a lot of gold now graded ms65 that would have been graded 63 in 1989. Kudos for him for pointing it out.