Who are the graders at PCGS?

GRANDAM · June 27, 2009 7:32AM

Does PCGS publish who grades our coins?

I know some of the sites show the graders photo and give a brief bio on each of them, does PCGS publish this info? I have never seen it if they do.

Just wondering who grades our coins?

GrandAm

MORGANHUNTER2 · June 27, 2009 7:36AM

Does the P.O. still have the 10 most wanted up on walls?

BECOKA · June 27, 2009 7:39AM

I think I asked this a couple of years ago and in general they don't publish this info. As to why I never got an answer from PCGS but the forum responses were all over the place mostly in the lines of PCGS would not want someone with a grudge over a certain grade to contact the graders directly or they did not want folks contacting them trying to influence them etc...

Goldbully · June 27, 2009 7:43AM

Start here, you need to call Ron Howard....not Opie!!!..............PCGS Graders

WTCG · June 27, 2009 8:32AM

All three of the better known grading companies from time to time will also employ part time graders to supplement their staff. The grading companies do not (and don't need to) publicize their graders but if you ask the people in the know they should be able to tell you.

Keep in mind that not all graders will see all the coins submitted so there is no way for the public to know for sure who graded their particular coins.

ambro51 · June 27, 2009 8:37AM

Well, there is "old Joe"....hes 122 years old, he grades by feel and smell....since he is deaf and blind.

Gets them pretty spot on too....but at age 114 they took him off the copper because he started calling too many REDS

ProofCents · June 27, 2009 8:52AM

I wonder if you have to have 20/20 uncorrected eye sight to be a grader?

Bear · June 27, 2009 9:06AM

"Old Blind Bob, One Eyed Louie and Crazy Carl"

PerryHall · June 27, 2009 9:10AM

<< I wonder if you have to have 20/20 uncorrected eye sight to be a grader?

>>

I'm very near sighted and without my glasses I can see coins crystal clear as if I had 2X magnification built into my eyes.

Bear · June 27, 2009 9:12AM

Actually, I believe that

the most effective

graders are near sighted.

WTCG · June 27, 2009 9:16AM

<< I wonder if you have to have 20/20 uncorrected eye sight to be a grader?

>>

I know of a few graders who wear glasses and besides, it's tough to have perfect vision when you're looking at things from four inches away under a very bright light for eight hours a day for a few decades at a time.

Maybe with one or two exceptions all the graders at the three major grading companies are excellent graders whose expertise I trust to a great extent. With that in mind I take exception to the people who post threads mocking or criticising the skills and abilities of those professional graders. Very few dealers and even fewer collectors can match the expertise and accuracy of those graders and by default are in no position to be critical of their skills.

thisnamztaken · June 27, 2009 9:35AM

<< Start here, you need to call Ron Howard....not Opie!!!..............PCGS Graders >>

Well, I learned something new at that link, i.e. that there are professional graders for "game used bats" and (especially) "unopened material".

I wonder if the "unopened material" graders have to take a test proving that they possess x-ray vision or something?

SeaEagleCoins · June 27, 2009 9:36AM

<< 

<< I wonder if you have to have 20/20 uncorrected eye sight to be a grader?

>>

I know of a few graders who wear glasses and besides, it's tough to have perfect vision when you're looking at things from four inches away under a very bright light for eight hours a day for a few decades at a time.

Maybe with one or two exceptions all the graders at the three major grading companies are excellent graders whose expertise I trust to a great extent. With that in mind I take exception to the people who post threads mocking or criticising the skills and abilities of those professional graders. Very few dealers and even fewer collectors can match the expertise and accuracy of those graders and by default are in no position to be critical of their skills. >>

I always defer to the professional graders opinions...except when they are not in agreement with mine

on second thought...I only disagree when their opinion is lower than mine...

isn't that the way everyone looks at it?

mozin · June 27, 2009 9:37AM

Maybe Don Willis will post the names of the regular graders, along with the coin types each of them grade. I wonder if Don sometimes steps up to grade some Bust series submissions.

If PCGS employs part-time graders on occasion, that certainly could account for a bit of grading standards differences. Might explain why one submission batch grades appear to be somewhat different than another.

MORGANHUNTER2 · June 27, 2009 11:20AM

<< 

<< I wonder if you have to have 20/20 uncorrected eye sight to be a grader?

>>

I know of a few graders who wear glasses and besides, it's tough to have perfect vision when you're looking at things from four inches away under a very bright light for eight hours a day for a few decades at a time.

Maybe with one or two exceptions all the graders at the three major grading companies are excellent graders whose expertise I trust to a great extent. With that in mind I take exception to the people who post threads mocking or criticising the skills and abilities of those professional graders. Very few dealers and even fewer collectors can match the expertise and accuracy of those graders and by default are in no position to be critical of their skills. >>

You take exception to a lot of things lately Wei, but yet from observation all graders are good and we as collectors don't know what we are talking about. As it has probably been posted here a few hundred times before- grading is an opinion, not a science nor will it ever be a fact to life in numismatics. So criticizing is truly a voice of ones opinion, and we have been allowed this freedom for a couple of hundred years, so I kind of take exception to your exception.

Unknown · June 27, 2009 11:38AM

This content has been removed.

WTCG · June 27, 2009 11:50AM

<< 

<< 

<< I wonder if you have to have 20/20 uncorrected eye sight to be a grader?

>>

I know of a few graders who wear glasses and besides, it's tough to have perfect vision when you're looking at things from four inches away under a very bright light for eight hours a day for a few decades at a time.

Maybe with one or two exceptions all the graders at the three major grading companies are excellent graders whose expertise I trust to a great extent. With that in mind I take exception to the people who post threads mocking or criticising the skills and abilities of those professional graders. Very few dealers and even fewer collectors can match the expertise and accuracy of those graders and by default are in no position to be critical of their skills. >>

You take exception to a lot of things lately Wei, but yet from observation all graders are good and we as collectors don't know what we are talking about. As it has probably been posted here a few hundred times before- grading is an opinion, not a science nor will it ever be a fact to life in numismatics. So criticizing is truly a voice of ones opinion, and we have been allowed this freedom for a couple of hundred years, so I kind of take exception to your exception. >>

We have repeatedly established that grades are an opinion, but with only a few exceptions I would regard the opinions of a professional grader more valid than those of the average collector or dealer.

If it came down to a situation where I did not get the chance to view a coin beforehand and both Morganhunter2 and a grader such as Mike Sargent had a chance to assign a grade to that coin I would without question value Mike Sargent's opinion with much more credibility than the opinion of the other person.

My sig line used to read "if you're such a good grader and the professional ones don't have a clue then why hasn't anybody from PCGS or NGC offered you a full time grading position?" that statement still holds true.

truthteller · June 27, 2009 5:18PM

The graders at the TPGs all have their fields of expertise and the TPGs assign those graders who have that expertise to specific roles. A grader such as Mike Sargent grades gold with proficiency. However, I would not expect to see him grade generic Walkers, Germany or Latin American coinage. So blanket statements about such and such grader being expert only applies to coins he/she knows well. Coins that are graded in the top tiers submission packages are graded by the tenured graders whose knowlege is superb while the bulk submissions might be graded by graders who have a limited knowlege but a wide range of skills. I don't expect to see a $500,000 coin graded within a package of common Morgan dollars.

TRUTH