Grading tip added for a popular answer to “what do you think is the hardest coin to grade?”
MFeld
Posts: 16,181 ✭✭✭✭✭
And if you’re feeling especially energetic😉, please tell is what makes your selection the hardest to grade.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
2
Comments
Indian gold, the incuse ones
I'm BACK!!! Used to be Billet7 on the old forum.
I've always struggled with $2.5 and $5 Indian gold.
For me, Washington Quarter.
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety," --- Benjamin Franklin
Any heavily toned silver coins, I just cannot seem to see through the toning well enough to get close on them.
Any tips would be appreciated.
The hardest coin to grade ... or the hardest coin to grade correctly?
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First, it's always coins or finishes I am not pretty familiar with.
But then, it's size. For me I think 3c Silver and Half Dimes, and $1. Gold are tough. Probably a few others, but especially those coins smaller than a dime.
And it isn't just because they are hard to see ... although that is a big part of it. Sometimes it is hard to gauge marks and distractions without a glass, but then once the glass is there I have to remember those marks are tiny without magnification, even if they seem large relative to the coin surface area.
This also might be me. I always tend to grade without a glass first ... then with a glass ... and then back to no glass to re-access eye appeal.
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The coin you can't see ?
For me, it’s Early Cents. Particularly the first 25-30 years or so seem to be graded by the TPG’s with special allowances reflecting the mint processes of those times. I’m constantly surprised at some of the grades on these.
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Buffs
And the TPGs agree with me they are all over the place on AU58 to MS64.
Incuse Indians. Also, nickel coins because they often appear with nice eye appeal at 63 and above. Same with Washington and SL quarters and mercs.
For me I always had problems with peace dollars.
I think it’s much better to grade without a glass first. That way, you can see and get a feel for the entire coin. Assess it that way, first and then use a glass if you feel that you should.
Many years ago, when I was an instructor for the advanced grading class at the ANA seminar, one of the first things I said to the students was along the lines of “Put your glass down and look at the coin without it, first.”
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
Incuse Indians. Also, nickel coins because they often appear with nice eye appeal at 63 and above. Same with Washington and SL quarters and mercs.
Dime, especially Roosevelts. Probably because I have only one eye left and don't see those small ones correctly. I'm done with Unc dimes. Circulated seem to be a bit easier but not always. Rosies don't have the striking detail that I seem to need.
bob
Maybe a little bit of everything at times. I always had trouble with gold ✨️
I agree with some of the other comments... incused Indians are pretty tough. I had a difficult time with AU vs low-MS Buffalo Nickels. I just needed to spend more time with the series to get a feel for which years tended to be more flatly struck.
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My own.
Incuse Indian head gold.
Redacted
Serious answer:
The 1922 Weak Reverse Lincoln cent.
Those that involve photos only.
What type(s) of light do you use most often for viewing?
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
From my observations, the toughest coin to grade tends to be whatever someone just got results for from PCGS
Chain cents. I shopped for one of these for years (finally got one, a soapbox ANACS G6), it was wild how a coin could be worn to a slick but get a 6 or 8 (the reverse is always a lot stronger) while similar coins got a FR2. Others had obvious corrosion but would straight grade. In general, old crunchy copper where it's hard to tell the difference between flaws in the process/planchet and actual PMD.
Buffalo nickels for myself. Luster, wear, and contact marks are easily hidden in the busy design.
I think the TPGs screw up Peace dollars the most. The consistency is terrible across the board between all TPGs.
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Massachusetts silver. The strikes are all over the place, which makes it tough...
mbogoman
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Barbers for me, because they wear, so easily, and I don’t really know the series that well.
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My Achilles Heel was forgetting to factor in the rim and edge of a coin.
Hairlines too would sometimes escape me until a throughly rotated the coin under a bright light source.
The Standing Liberty Quarter.
I can get the Mint State and AU pieces right, but I always get the piece EF and lower grade pieces wrong. I consistently under grade them.
Chain Cents get a lot more slack from the grading services that other early copper pieces. Ditto for Wreath Cents.
This piece has rim bumps. After having had other early copper piece tossed back at me in body bags, I figured this would be a problem. NGC over graded it as an AU-50
I have seen these coins with corrosion on the reverse, which still got a high VF grade.
For mint state coins, submerge the coin in acetone and shine a good light on it while submerged, most of the time it'll let you see the surfaces under the toning.
Colonial.
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That doesn’t sound like the best of ideas for coins that he doesn’t own and/or that he would prefer to keep in their holders.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
I wonder if The Mycollect site will ever perform an analysis from their "guess the grade" game around this topic?
OMG ... My Mother was Right about Everything!
I wake up with a Good Attitude Every Day. Then … Idiots Happen!
Incuse Indian gold for sure
Probably not, but since that wasn't specified in his request for any tips, i didn't take it into account.
Massachusetts silver, state colonials, and Machin’s Mills halfpence are the most consistently, inconsistently graded coins by all TPG’s. Literally all over the map with details grade, straight grade, inaccurately graded, etc. I understand as these were made so crudely, but still. There were two straight graded coins that I really wanted the past two months, but on closer inspection were both tooled.
Incuse Indians. RGDS!
LED 5000 degrees (daylight type bulbs) most often and occasionally UVA 400nm bulb or simple sunlight with an open window. Is there a better color bulb for viewing toned coins?
Indian Gold $5 and $10.
The 1922-D cents from extremely worn dies, where the mere loss of Mint Red can take a Mint State coin to Good condition with no intervening wear.
If you haven’t already done so, I’d try 100W incandescent bulbs. I’d also consider a Tensor lamp.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
Where can I buy a case of them?
The incuse gold coins are the hardest for me to grade, followed by large gold coins in general. The metal is so soft they are always bag marked more than silver coins but I keep wanting to grade them without taking that into account and I end up undergrading them compared to PCGS
I also can’t tell AU58s and MS64s apart compared to PCGS. I think lots of 64s are AU58s. I don’t have problems going the other direction though, I can tell if a coin is a solid 64 and I don’t mistake AU58 coins for 64s. Hopefully that makes sense. To simplify, I think lots of low end 64s are AU58s and I’m always surprised when they turn out to be PCGS 64s
Mr_Spud
I can only comment on what I collect and have raw.
Before I became a Morgan collector I had a thing for uncirculated raw Mercury Heads.
I have some really nice ones. They look gem to me. I cant see any nicks or dings and the luster is amazing.
I wouldn't be able to put a number on them no matter how hard I try.
I purchased them from an infamous ebay seller. I no longer buy from him but he does have nice dimes.
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Sorry, I don’t know, but think there’s a decent chance that quite a few large dealers have a supply of them.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
Franklin halves
Dave
Incuse Indian gold is definitely hard. And there's a lot of really early type I just don't have any experience with. But also -- I see an awful lot of Classic Head gold $2.50 and $5 coinage in lower mint state holders that just don't make any sense to me, like why isn't it AU58 ... and I truly don't know whether the issue is that a lot of it gets submitted over and over until it lucks into too high a holder, or if there's something I'm just not understanding.
Yeah, and it’s the type I focus on. It’s just buy graded now. It’s too hard to tell sometimes between wear and typical San Francisco weak strikes. I’m getting better at seeing AU58 type rub as I collect, but it doesn’t mean I’m any good at it.
Newbie collector of type and circulated Peace dollars, photographer of places and animals, player of instruments and builder of amplifiers, espresso industry professional, and a person distracted by shiny objects. https://mycollect.com/Rule556/sets
I've found early copper to always be tough, rarely agreeing with graded examples.
Then again, Cal gold is tricky. Just based on the size thing.......
Thanks, I have a case of them left over from when I switched my whole house to LED, so plenty to use in my office lamp. I'll give that a try, thanks!