POLL: High Quality Coins vs. High Certified Grade - Update #3 with 72 Votes

Stuart

I'm curious to canvas our little numismatically enlightened community for your opinion to the following question:

How many of you out there make your coin purchasing decisions base upon High Quality coins focusing on attractive eye appeal (regardless of certified grade), and how many prefer to focus their purchasing primarily based upon High Certified Grade?

My personal opinion is that many in the hobby are focusing too much on high certified grade, and not enough on excellent eye appeal high quality blue chip coins, and that the economics of some segments of the current coin market are being driven by people with a High Dollar:Sense Ratio.

What do you think?? I'd like to see your comments posted in addition to tallying up the vote!! Thanks!!

LucyBop

Cat, I love you baby, but don't you think you can found both qualities in the same coin?


Lucille collects high quality high grade coins.......

The Hepcats know, that Lucille rocks the show!

Fairlaneman

Both go hand in hand for the most part. Dogs are in all certified grades wouldn't you say.

If I could find MS63 coins that look like my icon the bucks would be on the table fast. This does not happen though.

Ken

Stuart

<< Cat, I love you baby, but don't you think you can found both qualities in the same coin? >>

Lucy Bop: Thanks for your reply! I was wondering which of our astute forum members would be the first to bring this up. Yep, you certainly can find high certified graded coins which also have high eye appeal.

However, I was wondering out of our advanced collecting forum member community, which members prioritized High Certified Grade vs. simply a High Quality coin whether raw or certified, as a higher priority if they had to pick one or the other, but not both.

Hey, it's not a scientific poll, but mainly intended to stimulate some lively and enlightening discussion about how we make our purchasing decisions. It dovetails with Blades' recent thread about AU-58 coins, which I personally feel are very underappreciated and undervalued especially for 19th century Type Coins -- which I happen to really love !!

Other comments from the peanut gallery ??

LucyBop

My biggest priority is to find High End High Eye Appeal Raw GEMs of all dominations and get them graded and bring fresh stuff to
the market........

of course, some may wind up in my Registry sets......

Newmismatist

<< <i>Other comments from the peanut gallery ?? >>



Well, I'm not sure I qualify for a member of the peanut gallery, but I like to buy nice coins. The certified grade is someone else's opinion as to what THEY think the the coin is. THe more unsure you are about grading, the more you rely on someone else's opinion. The more comfortable you feel about your own grading skills, the less you have to rely upon someone else's opinion.

When PCGS says a 1963 proof penny is PR70DCam, I don't have to rely on their opinion to tell me that the coin that I see is nowhere near perfect. Conversely, if I see a killer coin that I like a lot, and its only graded, say Pr64, I'll try and buy it so long as I feel the price is fair for the coin. In reality, the price may be more important than the grade. A dull lifelless coin graded MS67, may be completely maxed out for the grade and over-priced at MS67 money, whereas a PQ MS66 coin that has incredible eye-appeal, may be an absolute bargain at 50% over MS66 money (and still half of what the other unattractive but higher grade coin costs). It's really quite simple. If you have spent the necessary time to learn how to grade coins, you don't have to rely on someone else's opinion to tell you what's nice and what's not. If they're nice coins and fairly priced, and you like the coin - it's probably a good buy. If you're buying a paper insert for a registry set, you may end up owning some very expensive paper opinions.

Does that get me into the peanut gallery?

Stuart

Newmismatist: Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this subject with us -- you are now an officially sanctioned member of "The Peanut Gallery"

Skipper53

I go primarily for highest affordable grade, but
if it doesn't have eye-appeal I'll pass.
It's meant waiting to complete a set but I feel
it'll be worth it for a dazzling, high-grade set !

Stuart

Skipper: Thanks for your post!

I usually prefer to go with the highest economic grade for the type, series, and grade and try to purchase high eye appeal coins with strong strike, high luster, minimal contact marks and perhaps the slightest rub which knocks the MS-63 price down to AU-58 for 19th Century Type Coins -- and MS-64 (vs MS-65) for common date Morgans...

Stuart

Well, I'm a bit surprised and pleased to see that the vast majority of the people voted for High Quality (Strong Eye Appeal) over High Certified Grade. Here are the results so far with 36 votes having been cast...

Total Votes: 36


High Quality (Strong Eye Appeal) 29 (votes) 80.56 %
High Certified Grade 4 (votes) 11.11 %
Other Criteria 3 (votes) 8.33 %

jdimmick

I also try to find high quality eye-appeal coins in the highest grade I can financially afford, but would hands down choose a lower grade better eye-appealing piece, then an average quality higher graded specimen.

dizzlecc

As a collector, the easy answer is high quality.

I think we all enjoy purchasing a lower grade coin for a lower cost and then comparing it to a higher certified grade and discover that our higher quality coin is close or even more appealing (even if it is just our personnel opinion anyway).

Stuart

Update #2 -- Here are the results with 59 votes having been cast... High Quality still way ahead of High Certified Grade 76% to 14%

Total Votes: 59


High Quality (Strong Eye Appeal) 45 (votes) 76.27 %
High Certified Grade 8 (votes) 13.56 %
Other Criteria 6 (votes) 10.17 %

Keep the votes rolling in !!

tradedollarnut

Both. I agree with Lucybop. I'm not too interested in a great MS61 unless it's a really rare date. I'm looking for condition census coins with great eye appeal.

Stuart

Update #3 -- Here are the results with 72 votes having been cast... High Quality way ahead and still pulling away from High Certified Grade 79% to 13%

Total Votes: 72

High Quality (Strong Eye Appeal): 57 votes 79.17 %
High Certified Grade: 9 votes 12.50 %
Other Criteria 6 votes: 8.33 %

nepbrs44

I think they go hand in hand also......I have seen certified coins that should have been bodybags!!

nwcs

The options A, B, C, AB, AC, BC influence my purchasing decisions