What Do YOU Think Is The Toughest Series to Grade?

Tassa

What coins do you find the hardest to grade? For me, it would have to be Mercury dimes and gold coins.

Louis

$2.50 and $5.00 indian gold.

cointagious

mid 1920s branch mint buffalo nickels and hi grade $2½ indians.

ccr

I don`t look at alot of gold pieces so that would be the toughest because of the lack of experience. Mercs for me is rough too. Peace dollars are still abit tough but I`m getting a little bit better lately.

jom

$2.50 and $5.00 Indian gold.

jom

foodude

Again with the $2.50 and $5.00 Indian gold being the toughest.

Cam40

any denom smaller than a Lincoln cent.

Merc

Buffalo nickels. It is hard to tell if the have a bit of rub or not. Plus there is grade inflation for VF20. Older collectors have told me it takes a full horn to make VF. The ANA grading book also calls for a full horn for VF20. I know the S mints from the 1920's were weakly struck so the horn may not be completely full. The trouble I am seeing other dates with a 3/4 horn being called VF20 by the main grading companies. I want to see a full horn for a VF.

clackamas

Buffs and Dimes

ursabear

Toughest to grade for me personally? Probably small-denom old gold and pretty much all copper before IHC.

Dahlonega

Over the decades at one time or another I learned to grade most series but you forget the details if you're not actively pursuing them. Nevertheless I never learned to properly grade incused gold [Indian quarter and half eagles...they remain a mystery still although I can at least catagorize them into sliders, choice or gem. I'm exempting myself from early coppers and colonials and of course your skills fade with age. I think a lot of sharp graders age 30-40 will be surprised at their regression 15 to 20 years later. It's not that you can't grade a coin it's that it's really difficult to grade and screen scores of coins. Charlotte and Dahonega are impossible to grade unless you have seen a lot of coins and all the dates many times...they were produced with inferior equipment and the strike characteristics vary tremendously. I'm convinced that many of the recent graders at the major services do not have the experience necessary to properly grade these coins...but, I have nothing except my experiences and dozens of antedotal incidents to support this. Indeed I am reluctant to criticize since I do not have a solution except to hire graders with more experience.

ARCO

Washington quarters for me. XF's look exactly the same as VG's to my eyes. Gold is impossible too as it is usually cleaned and has loads of marks in the circulated grades. Factoring poor strikes on Buffalo nickels could be a real challenge, and the granddaddy for me is the Franklin half. Just a blob of silver barely resembling a face or something!

Tyler

jdimmick

I am not a gold buyer, but that is one area that I need to improve on.(especially after the oppritunity I missed last month)


I also have trouble with SLQ's for some reason

OneYearTypes

Without a doubt, the #1 hardest series is Charlotte Gold.

Newkid

Circulated Franklins.

oldcameoproofsguy

Buffalo nickels are really tough to grade. Sometimes a soft struck Buff can be MS but looks almost EF to me.

Trime

I agree withthose that say 2.50 and $5 Indians.

BigBucNutts

<< <i>I agree withthose that say 2.50 and $5 Indians. >>



I agree with those that agree-------21/2 and $5 Indians.

SethChandler

Great question! I would have to say matte proof gold. Let's face it, you'd expect proof coins to be brilliant and flashy.....easy to pick up imperfections. Not with matte proof gold, the dies were sandblasted therefore giving the coin a rough matte-like appearence. It's very difficult to find problems, hairlines, etc. They are stressful coins to grade. One point could be a 10k+ difference in price.

Seth

construct

Answering the question with respect to series taken as a whole, there is no doubt in my mind. $2.50 and $5 Indian gold.

kingmatt

Anything gold and Franklin halves

darktone

I used to think the $5 indian was the hardest but I bought several coins and familiarized myself with them. I think the $2 1/2 indian is easier to grade than the $5- better struck than the $5. Type two standing quarters with the raised date are hard for me to grade. The $10 and $20 liberty I think are about the easiest coin to grade along with the morgan dollar. mike

dorkkarl

machin's mills.

K S

MadMonk

I'll have to jump into the incuse indian designs camp. I'n addition, I'll add all unc dimes. I can feel confident with what I grade them, but still havent figured out what the grading gods, who seem to be all over the place (inconsistent), are doing.

CharlieB

I have always felt Buffalos were harder to grade.

nwcs

Proof coins, incuse design coins, 3 cent silvers

coinMASTER

I would say old copper coins like large cents and half cents.

itsnotjustme

3 Cent Silver--their so teeny
Peace Dollars
$2-1/2 & $5 Indian Gold

BillJones

Standing Liberty quarters

Except for the 1917 type 1 nearly all of them are weakly struck to one degree or another. That leaves you with using surfaces for grading wich means that an AU should have mint luster. I can't believe what some people call AU these days for standing liberty quarters.

Baley

All those mentioned can be tough, incuse gold is notoriously difficult, anything tiny like trimes, half dimes, and gold dollars, peace dollars are Very frequently overgraded, nickel coins in general because of the hardness of the metal and striking difficulty, and early S mint buffalo nickels in particular, all early copper because of corrosion, early classic head in particular, well, the list goes on, those just off top of head. Easiest for me to grade are Morgan dollars, Franklin and WL halves, Washington quarters, etc.

EVillageProwler

Pratt gold, silver Bust and colonials.

EVP