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Posted

1. 60% surface preservation

2. 15% strike

3. 15% luster

4. 10% eye appeal

I'd be interested to know of those 4 components, what respective percentages would UK collectors assign?

For me as an Australian collector strike is a huge factor - plenty of Perth Mint pennies and halfpennies have indistinct rim beads and ill-defined high points on the portrait. I know coins with such poor strike can be technically uncirculated, but I can't come to considering them uncirculated, let alone paying good money for them because PCGS doesn't mind terrible strike.

Posted

Based on their figure, the grade of a mint state coin is determined by: 1. 60% surface preservation2. 15% strike3. 15% luster4. 10% eye appeal I'd be interested to know of those 4 components, what respective percentages would UK collectors assign?

Obviously I don't collect mint state coins. But I too am surprised by the percentages.To me a grade is surely entirely down to wear (surface preservation)? A sharp-as-you-like coin that has bag marks should to my opinion still grade the same as one that has no marks.Clearly if the surface is damaged in some way by natural wear or by cleaning, some percentage of the original surface has been removed and the grade drops. This is where lustre and strike come in, to allow determination of whether a coin is worn or normally poorly struck.In theory I think a BU sharply struck coin should grade the same as a BU weakly struck one. If there's no wear at all it should attain top grade.Of course that doesn't happen in practice because people generally favour more sharply struck coins, as we know. Hence 2,3 and 4 which I rather feel all fall into the catch-all of 'eye appeal'Oddly 'eye appeal' is what I (almost exclusively) go on when buying coins ... strange that..

Tom,

You have absolutely nailed it.

The fact is the two systems, tradditional English grading and numerical are not comparable. It's apples and pears.

Are both relevant? Perhaps.

The benefit of the tradditional method is that it allows for much more description and qualification.

Mark

Posted (edited)

I managed eight and a half minutes before wanting to slit my wrists…… YAWN

I thought hobbies were supposed to be fun :D.

Edited by Michael-Roo
Posted

I just skipped to the middle, got bored, and went to the end. I personally don't rate a slabbed piece any higher than a loose coin; for me, eye appeal, toning and the general feel of a coin is much more important than minute difference in grade - particularly when some bias or incorrect grading could occur, as has been suggested previously...

Posted

Only slightly related but Rick Snow ("Eagle Eye") on PCGS US Coins forum has just posted an interesting essay on grade inflation of slabbed bits, using the AU50 1877 Indian Head cent as an example....

Posted

Possibly it's PCGS. They host the website and its forum and might not have fully appreciated the contents of the post.

Posted

The thread was "zapped" by PCGS. They tend to have a very low tolerance for anything that be even remotely misconstrued as "criticism" of their product.

On the other hand, NGC leaves up posts all the time on their forum that are not only critical of NGC (and PCGS and CAC), but sometimes border on slander.

I much prefer the mentality of NGC in allowing people to have an open discussion instead of "cleansing" the boards of anything negative. PCGS is sort of like the North Korea and Russia media services. ;)

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