ANA Grading Standards - First Draft Edition 1977 - MS66, 67, 68. 69 a big No No. MS70 ok.
Ronyahski
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ANA President Virgil Hancock appointed Abe Kosoff as Grading Chairman of a panel to create the first Official Grading Standards for U.S Coins for the ANA. The first draft edition was completed in 1977 after two years of work. Kosoff said that a perfect solution to the problem is next to impossible, but he was convinced that a workable solution was at hand.
Here is the resultant grading scale the panel came up with:
Some refer to overgraded slabs as Coffins. I like to think of them as Happy Coins.
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Comments
I love the MS-66 to MS-69 description. So essentially they are to be used by charlatans and hucksters.
@Ronyahski
Thanks for this information.
Even in the beginning of setting a grading standard the grades of 66-69 were seemingly pointless. But it seems like they compressed what could have been 66s, 67p, 68m, and 69d into subsets of 70.
Who was on the panel?
Very interesting piece of history, thanks.
@Ronyahski
Very interesting ... what is the source of the page?
See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces
I've never seen this before thanks for sharing. I find it interesting that they wanted to discourage the use of the 66 thru 69 grades. I can usually see the difference pretty easily between a 65 and 66/67 coin. There's not nearly as many 68/69's out there to judge from. And of course there's a lot of money differences in these grade ranges with many coins,
The MS70 categories are interesting... clearly an attempt to categorize minor variations of an almost perfect coin. The entire document demonstrates the difficulties in assigning grades when clearly the written definitions are based on opinion. Once an opinion is advanced, the discussion - based around dissenting opinions - begins. It goes on here on the forum every day. Cheers, RickO
Obviously this draft version was never adopted. I have never seen it before. BTW, the standards were presented to the Board at the 1976 ANA convention in New York and published in 1977.
ANA President Virginia Culver first asked Abe to work on the grading standards in 1973, but I don't know if much got done before Virgil re-appointed him at the 1975 convention in LA. Virgil could be very gung-ho at times.
Can you please send me a scan of the entire document?
TD
Not sure if they ever published the names of panel members, or even had an "official" panel. When ANA first started with authentication services in the early 1970's the authenticator's names were secret.
Definitely some of the catalysts behind the ANA push to create a grading standard: Eric Newman, Harvey Stack, Stanley Apfelbaum, Virgil Hancock. It seems that Kosoff took the ball a lot and ran with it.
Back in 1907 the ANA appointed a committee to study the possibility of establishing grading standards. Henry Chapman of Philadelphia was the chairman of that group. The group worked for over two years and came back with their report, "Impossible!"
Thanks @Ronyahski
Interesting to see the EF vs XF debate occurring then as now.
Capt, you'd know better than any of us, but you sure about your dates above? The Kosoff report was the 1st edition, which was not completed until 1977. Wasn't ANA just organizing efforts in 1975-1976? They just formed the grading board and I think they named Pittman as the first chairman.
Anyway, please PM me with your email, and I'll try to send you a copy of Kosoff's report.
This is why I love this forum. You just never know what you are going to read when you open a thread. This one exceeded my expectations.
Thank you!
See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces
Interesting draft. Notice the many revisions before publication.
As proposed the "MS 70" category was DOA. I don't believe Kosoff was the right person to do this - too many deals and skeletons. Frank Katen and some others had a clearer, more balanced concept, but they were not welcome in the event.
Excellent find!
Absolutely agree!
Guidelines is a better word than Standards.
When it's an opinion, one is free to use the whole numberline instead of leaping from 65 to 70. There are now enough certified (and stickered) coins on the market (and in online archives, which didn't exist until recently) to serve as benchmarks.
You and i may dispute whether a hotel or movie gets 4 or 5 stars, but we ought to agree with the difference between that one and one that only earns 1 or 2 stars. We might even agree, after comparing notes on other hotels, that 4 1/2 stars makes the most sense for this particular one.
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
The first Grading Roundtable was held at Stacks in NYC. It took place while I was still at ANACS so pre 1976. I told the assemblage that ANACS could start grading coins immediately as I had devised a technical grading system (not the so-called one used in CO when they moved) for our internal records that had been in use for a few years already.
I don't remember everyone at the Roundtable except for Kossoff, Stack, Bowers, Loring, Hoskins, Affelbaum, Klineman (Sp), and possibly Newman and Breen.
While it was all we had and a necessary start, unfortunately, the final product (ANA Grading Guide) was written by a committee and you know how that works out.
Perhaps 50 years from now we'll have a hybrid coin-slab grading system: a perfectly-consistent dynamic scientific scan (by means of the then equivalent of today's smartphone app) which will calculate a new point total based on the coin within the slab - considering all of the coin's attributes, plus the physical condition of the slab (scratches and abrasions, etc.), along with the hybrid coin-slab pedigree data and true rarity based on decades of historical sales appearance.
Very interesting.
Plenty of typos.
"“Those who sacrifice liberty for security/safety deserve neither.“(Benjamin Franklin)
"I only golf on days that end in 'Y'" (DE59)
Wish I could embed a tag to this thread for easier searching (from other devices) when it gets buried.
Makeshift tag.
Grading. ANA. 1977. Kosoff. 70d. 70m. 70p. 70s. Official Grading Standards. Coins. Document.