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The original plus holder
sadysta1
Posts: 1,307 ✭✭✭
I guess we have to concede that it was Accugrade that came up with the idea of plus grade.... 
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sadysta1
Posts: 1,307 ✭✭✭
sadysta1
Posts: 1,307 ✭✭✭
sadysta1
Posts: 1,307 ✭✭✭
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While I don't know if they were the first to come up with the decimal grading, this is one of the oldest holders that I have seen like this. Compugrade was known for using decimals as well.
And if we are talking about "plus" grading, INS did it too. Please see this example:
http://m.ebay.com/itm/1887-Morgan-Silver-Dollar-Gem-BU-Colrful-Rim-Tone-OLD-HOLDER-/192084875175?hash=item2cb92697a7:g:NlUAAOSwnHZYhMdP&_trkparms=pageci%3A60a25740-874e-11e7-8692-74dbd18065a8%7Cparentrq%3A0a8e0e6815e0a88ae2bcc98efff092bd%7Ciid%3A1
Actually not. While one of the slab services (Accugrade?) may have been the first "Slab" service to use a plus grade ON A HOLDER, the plus was in use decades before to grade coins.
Many dealers used a "+" to indicate that a coin's grade was "somewhere between the halfway point and the next grade. Using a nonsensical example from before the grades were broken down as they are today for the XF grade (40-50): Coins that could be considered + were the 45, 46, 47, 48, and 49's.
When the first Third party Grading Service (an off-shoot from the INS Authentication Bureau in Washington ,DC) started grading using the original "TECHNICAL" system, they revised the meaning of "+".
In their grading system (based on Sheldon) all XF coins (40) fell between 40 and 48. The "+" was reserved for the liners - 49's that could be called 50 by some. This was a very thin line - possibly like the CAC gold bean of today.
INSAB graded coins using a buff colored card to keep the grade separate from the authentication certificate (a photograph). The Director, Charles Hoskins believed that grading was an opinion and everyone has one. Besides, INSAB grading was extremely strict.
"In their grading system (based on Sheldon) all XF coins (40) fell between 40 and 48. The "+" was reserved for the liners - 49's that could be called 50 by some. This was a very thin line - possibly like the CAC gold bean of today." I will never understand how a grade between 49 and 50 (for example) could be called a thin line.... it is no thinner than between any two sequential numerical grades. It is or it isn't - and it IS all opinion anyway.
Cheers, RickO
There are no sequential numbers (YET) for circulated grades - only big jumps (for example 40, 45). After 45 comes AU-50 so I'll try to explain what I posted better.
Have you ever looked at a coin and thought - AU-50, no XF-45. Then showed it to your neighbor who thinks AU-50. No, let me look again. XF is better not enough detail. I disagree, look at the amount of luster. It has to grade AU. Done. Next week you are putting it out and thank, that's not and AU.
That's a "true" liner. Two or more professionals deliberate if AU or XF...and they are both correct!
@Insider2....Yep... it is.... that is a discussion that covers FIVE points....Although TPG's might not like the idea, the only cure for this is to establish standards.... Real standards such as those controlled by NBS. This likely would mean computer grading, and - at last - get rid of the ridiculous 'eye appeal' category. That can be left up to the buyer/seller to work out. Subjective grading must come to an end. Cheers, RickO
I've been scribbling down + grades in my auction catalogs since 1975. In some cases double pluses ++ if the coin was almost the next grade up. Plus grades or in between grades have been around since the time of Sheldon's MS system, or even before.
Wouldn't that be great.......but will never happen. I know you are never suppose to say "never"......but I think it is safe here!
@roadrunner said: "I've been scribbling down + grades in my auction catalogs since 1975. In some cases double pluses ++ if the coin was almost the next grade up. Plus grades or in between grades have been around since the time of Sheldon's MS system, or even before. "
I've already posted that many dealers/collectors used pluses to describe their coins. BTW, I may have purchased one of your old auction catalogues as several lots have notations like VF+++! Your post has confirmed that this was going on long before coins were being independently graded.
The difference is a "+" used on a grading certificate (or holder) from an established professional authentication service that also assigns grades to the coins it authenticates.
That's what the thread is about.
@DIMEMAN said: "Wouldn't that be great.......but will never happen. I know you are never suppose to say "never"......but I think it is safe here! "
Don't be to sure, only the "Big Boys" know the future.
PS Happy Birthday!
Actually, the really 'big boys' are the collectors and dealers... and - although unlikely - if there was a major movement to reject gradeflation and subjectivity, then that would force a change in grading. Cheers, RickO
Disagree, the collectors and dealers are the "tail." They get wagged by the TPGS's and CAC. How about another CAC thread...LOL.
So if our host decides to add XF-41, 42, 43, 44, 46, 47, 48, and 49 or decimals (for example) to their opinions that is the way it will be!
We can take-it-or-leave it. My bet, most will take it.
So who reported the listing? Ebay decided to take it down.
Apparently they didn't agree that this was the original plus holder and had to banish it!
So when someone lists a coin as, for example, a SOLID 65...........would that make the coin a 65.5?
Pete
Grading should be changed to a band of COLOR.
Intensity increasing as the quality rises. From a drab olive brown to a scintillating vibrant shimmering metalflake blazing silver white. Almost blinding to see.
A slight upgrade could be designated by transitioning to sun gold.
But not until stickers have run their course, of course.
