rmw

I have a Canadian collection, largely graded by ICCS, in addition to my British Collection, graded mostly by NGC.

In my opinion, in the 1990s, ICCS was more conservative in its grading than either of the two main US services, but now is only slightly more conservative when it comes to surface quality.

this is borne out to some extent by wholesale prices in Canada for Canadian coins, which appear to get a higher premium than the equivalent grade from the Us services.

Having said that, grading in my opinion is a bit more of an art than a science. Surface quality is a bit easier to quantify. Lustre and strike not so much, particularly for older issues.

From what I read today, any PCGS coins in current registry sets are grandfathered. So anyone thinking of having to sell existing PCGS coins their current registry sets might be jumping the gun a bit depending on what their objective is (assuming my understanding is right).