it's the desirability

As has been said many times in journal entries, "the demand creates the value of a coin"-and also the number of points a coin is worth. Many people wonder about how NGC comes up with the points for particular coins...how do they weigh market value, versus mintages, versus condition rarity etc etc.

Let's look at the Jefferson nickel proofs for example: almost all of the 1980's -2006 are worth only 3 points for a PF69UCAM, which makes sense since there are tens of thousands of these graded and they can be bought for below the cost of the slab. The PF70's of these dates range from $100-300 in price, thus the 100 points is fair-there are dozens of each date at 70 and the lower amount of 70's the more the points go up.

There are some exceptions but for good reason..the 1994 and 1997 SP coins have miniscule mintages {they are probably undervalued in the market} and when the nickel design changes these coins will be VERY hard to find.

My main point is going to be about the heavy points for Ultra Cameo as opposed to a plain proof or SMS. In the case of the SMS coins an UCAM is incredibly rare. Take for example the 1965, NGC has only certified FIVE!!! UCAM coins-3 in 66 and 2 in 67 --if anything these coins are underweighted in point value. {PCGS populations are similar} put simply, there are over 136,000,000 non-cameo 1965's and 5 deep cameo's? The price and demand also reflect this {obviously this is not news to collectors} as on the rare occasion that one appears for sale it sells for THOUSANDS---of course it is worth more points-and it actually should be worth even higher if mathematical ratios were considered. I pay higher for a wonderfully contrasted and deeply mirrored cameo coin and it seems to be the consensus in Numismatics that these are preferred.

All things considered, NGC does a wonderful job at assigning points and weighing all of the factors before setting the point level. I too understand the frustration of the points...My 64 may be worth 100 points but a 65 may be worth 800 points-doesn't seem fair--but the reason I bought ther 64 is because it cost $250 and the 65 cost $1500.

There are always going to be undervalued coins for their rarity, and market and demands for some coins change--and that is why NGC gives you the option of contacting them for a Point Change. If you present a viable reason/evidence to them, they will change the point values { I know this from experience}, but for the most part they do an incredible job weighing all of the factors and coming up with a great system for points---even if it is like grading..an imperfect science.