Interesting things I've found during my research of old catalogs - Part 1

ColonialCoinUnion

A nice AU50 Voce Populi Nelson 3 from the November 1988 Bowers and Merena Norweb sale:


And the same coin as a nice 'MS60 or finer' less than 2 years later as seen in the March 1990 Bowers and Merena 'Boyd, Brand, Ryder' sale


I guess maybe Bowers hired a new grader in 1989?

Most amazing to me was that other than changing the grade by 10 points +, Bowers used exactly the same description for the coin in each catalog.

kieferscoins

I wonder what it would grade today?

Cameron Kiefer

Coinosaurus

What? Grading standards change over time? Oh, the horror!! Whatever shall us poor, innocent, tender and naive coin collectors do? I think I shall sit down and have a good cry about it. Afterword perhaps my mother will give me some bread and blackberries for supper, and tell me that the big bad wolf will never get me.

Good research by the way

mgoodm3

Sounds like they were trying to make a few more bucks the second time around.

ColonialCoinUnion

The coin is not slabbed as far as I know, and probably resides in one of the top colonial collections in NY or NJ.

I would guess it would be a PCGS 63 or 64 today.

Not that there is necessarily a correlation, but I own 2 coins from the Boyd, Brand, Ryder sale -

The first was called 'MS65, outstanding in the Boyd, Brand, Ryder catalog and is now a PCGS MS65.
The second was 'VF25 or finer' and is now a PCGS XF45.

ColonialCoinUnion

<< <i>What? Grading standards change over time? Oh, the horror!! >>



Sure - its a common story these days. But it really wasn't back in 1988 - 1990, particularly in the colonial realm. This is actually a pretty bizarre case.

tradedollarnut

Not bizarre at all - for a better feel how did the prices realized compare? I usually ignore the descriptive grades in big name sales.... the auction companies had incentive to be very conservative. But they won't be conservative if a dealer consigns a coin later... no way, no how will he let them be.

There are plenty of 'name' coins graded AU in the sales that immediately slabbed as unc. For instance, the Eliasberg 1843 dollar [cataloged as AU58] currently offered on the BST forum was immediately graded MS64 by NGC.

ColonialCoinUnion

<< <i>Not bizarre at all - for a better feel how did the prices realized compare? >>



$440 in 1988, $743 in 1990.

PreTurb

I agree with TDN - lots of the Elisasberg coins were "undergraded", which churned up lots of interest, since people though they might get choice coins cheap. Bowers was later able to say that they got MS money for AU graded coins. Everyone already had recognized they were MS in the first place, and bid accordingly.

ColonialCoinUnion

Interesting reaction. I've certainly seen plenty of modern slabbed grades that are higher than the old Eliasberg (1996/7) and before that Norweb (1987/88) and Garrett (1980/81) grades, but I thought this one was unusual in that it was 18 months later, both were raw, it was handled by the same auction house using the exact same description.

I guess I was wrong.

dorkkarl

... and is gradeflation still at issue here?

K S

firstmint

That's what happens when you go from a 60 watt bulb to a 100 watt bulb.