ANA grading scale, and dumbed-down TPG grading of Buffalo nickels

gyocomgd

My rather boisterous claim that 26-S Buffalo nickels needn't have a full horn to attain an XF grade, requires some backing up. These images are from the Heritage auction archives. These three 26-S examples all were graded XF40 by NGC, NGC and PCGS, respectively. Apologies for the poor quality.
There are many, many AU examples that previously would have been XF, VF coins that formerly were F, and so on.
Thanks to Amanda for the thread that prompted me to delve into this a bit more.
The coins in this series are, of course, graded relative to what is typical for the date and mint. Many of the mushy and weakly struck D-mint coins are graded on their own merits; they all are.
The moral of the story to me is that technical knowledge should be accompanied by knowledge of current trends in grading. I think if you don't apportion that 50-50, you'll get your butt handed to you sooner or later.
Also, I think the complicated nature of the individual coins in this series makes the TPGs more likely to make mistakes--to overgrade or undergrade as the case may be. It makes it more important to (A) Buy the coin, not the holder except when the coin is undergraded. And (B) There is a thing called "resubmitting" when a Buffalo nickel is clearly undergraded. It's unlikely the grades will be fooled more than once or twice.

guitarwes

cool blue/green/purple digital toning on the first two. Nice camera effect. I would have graded those just below EF, but it's ashame that TPG services are never wrong.
I hear they "fudge" a little with key dates. Is this mostly true????

Leiana

Interesting.

I know this date is often weakly struck, as is the 25-S.

Thanks for putting this together.

-Amanda

koynekwest

There is no excuse to use the "weak strike" disclaimer for this date lacking a full horn in VF or XF condition. While weak strikes DO exist, they are not nearly the problem for the '26-S that they are on some of the other dates of the era. The majority of 1926-S Buffalos are struck well enough to show a full horn.

gyocomgd

<< <i>There is no excuse to use the "weak strike" disclaimer for this date lacking a full horn in VF or XF condition. While weak strikes DO exist, they are not nearly the problem for the '26-S that they are on some of the other dates of the era. The majority of 1926-S Buffalos are struck well enough to show a full horn. >>



Absolutely. It is why I chose this coin as one of the more flagrant examples of market grading, or gradeflation.

Leiana

<< <i>

<< <i>There is no excuse to use the "weak strike" disclaimer for this date lacking a full horn in VF or XF condition. While weak strikes DO exist, they are not nearly the problem for the '26-S that they are on some of the other dates of the era. The majority of 1926-S Buffalos are struck well enough to show a full horn. >>



Absolutely. It is why I chose this coin as one of the more flagrant examples of market grading, or gradeflation. >>



Now I understand what you're talking about! Lightbulb moment.

I guess I disagree with 'gradeflation,' then. That's a nifty term to describe it.

-Amanda

Elcontador

The worst consistently weak strike I've seen is the 24 S re the VF - XF continuum.