How to solve the gradeflation problem.
291fifth
Posts: 24,700 ✭✭✭✭✭
My solution:
A coin's grade is no better than its weakest side.
If in doubt it ALWAYS goes to the lower grade.
If it has problems it ALWAYS goes into a "genuine" holder (assuming it is genuine).
All glory is fleeting.
3
Comments
Unfortunately, that won’t work with state colonials, which is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to grade early copper. There are many types that come weak on only one side. As an example check out 1787 Vermont with the Britannia reverse in your redbook. The reverse to a novice looks AG or thereabouts and the obverse can be close to Uncirculated. I would love to pay AG price for that!
Now that I think about it, how can one grade a coin that is soft on one side by that condition and the other side is choice VF? It was struck stronger on one side to begin with. Obviously it wore down to a VF on the one side. I have seen this on early O mint Barber half dollars and late 18th, early 19th century silver among other things. Price it accordingly if you like. Another reason why grading is subjective as some people can’t tell the difference between circulation wear and poorly prepared or otherwise problematic dies as well as the conditions in which they were struck.
Problem is not so much gradeflation but the excessive premiums collectors have assigned from one number to the next higher.
Well that is not a problem either as no one is obligated to buy a coin.
How severe a problem?
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
A foolproof method would be to serial number every coin as they are submitted.
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
IMHO, this will have no effect at all on "Gradeflation." You will agree with me when you think what
gradeflation" actually is and what causes it.
@Colonialcoin said:
Unfortunately, that won’t work with state colonials, which is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to grade early copper. There are many types that come weak on only one side. As an example check out 1787 Vermont with the Britannia reverse in your redbook. The reverse to a novice looks AG or thereabouts and the obverse can be close to Uncirculated. I would love to pay AG price for that!
Now that I think about it, how can one grade a coin that is soft on one side by that condition and the other side is choice VF? It was struck stronger on one side to begin with. Obviously it wore down to a VF on the one side. I have seen this on early O mint Barber half dollars and late 18th, early 19th century silver among other things. Price it accordingly if you like. Another reason why grading is subjective as some people can’t tell the difference between circulation wear and poorly prepared or otherwise problematic dies as well as the conditions in which they were struck.#
Good points but what you point out is nothing new under the sun. Plenty of vintage coins have a one point or more difference in grade between each side. The "commercial market" has decided that the obverse is the most important side.
Additionally, as you pointed out, some coins (especially colonials) have the detail of a VF yet are virtually original as struck!
The market is already 'solving' many problems, and in a couple of years we will wish that we still had those problems...
Grade it yourself. Offer your price based on your grade. Don't play the condition rarity game.
End market grading, start a second updated population report database, and a new holder to distinguish from yesteryear
And so the never ending issue of grading continues.... ad nauseum. It seems we now get two or three threads a week on this topic. The system is comprised of opinions... not standards. As such, it is open to disagreement. Until a major force (i.e. TPG, CAC, or some such enterprise) makes a major innovation, and captures the attention of the market, these issues will continue. Cheers, RickO
And so the never ending issue of grading continues.... ad nauseum. It seems we now get two or three threads a week on this topic. The system is comprised of opinions... not standards. As such, it is open to disagreement. Until a major force (i.e. TPG, CAC, or some such enterprise) makes a major innovation, and captures the attention of the market, these issues will continue. Cheers, RickO
RickO, was that a double tap?
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
What stops a person from sending the coin in multiple times to get the results they desire?
"A dog breaks your heart only one time and that is when they pass on". Unknown
Reminds me of that saying..."Why don't you have to put a lid on a crab pot?"
Inflated coins depress the price of better ones in the same grade.
Patience & persistence, it could work to your benefit.
My Saint Set
as long as humans submit coins to be graded, humans grade coins and then humans buy coins............................we will have grade-flation. the best solution for collectors like me is education and frugality.
However, with education, the separation of a coin's value from its grade, and the adoption of a strict universally accepted standard with several different images of each grade for all coin types, the gradeflation nonsense will be eliminated.
It can be eliminated NOW without any of that taking place if an image is taken and posted of every coin and its grade for all to see. Then, the only way to inflate the grade will be to send it to another TPGS (who will also image it) in hopes of a higher opinion ! Once imaged that's it - forever. Eventually all the coins will have images at each TPGS with the grades of most identical.
LOL!
That's what happens when you get old and get shaky fingers.
