Henri Charriere

I am very curious to know what your choices would have been.

I stand on my reply. As to the time discrepancy, I believe you are mistaken. I cannot respond to something that does not exist. These are aggregate feeds. I guess I will have to leave it to Forensics to unravel this. Bear in mind, the original query is over two years old.

It is concerning.

I disagree. An airplane on auto-pilot implies the pilot is simply overseeing flight as opposed to grading which is hands-on. [Anyhow, my religion forbids me to accept Perfect, Almost Perfect, Not Quite Perfect, etc. grading as applied to fresh from the Mint coinage.]

Clarification: my remark was intended for Big Nub Numis who used the word "autopilot" to speculatively describe what may happen to graders who are saddled with Monster Boxes of SAEs.

It suggests a lack of competence and professionalism which, however likely or suspected, cannot be addressed, will not evoke a meaningful response and is therefore better left unsaid. TPGS are like the CIA or FBI in that they will "neither confirm, nor deny."

That's a cold shot!

I agree but I cannot help but recall that the recovery of artifacts found at the site of the 1857 sinking of the S.S. Central America (just off the North Carolina coast) was meticulously documented, researched and part of the proceeds sold before greed set in -- and the next thing you know, the expedition's head is arrested, convicted and sentenced to a term in Federal prison.

Ah, the City of Brotherly Love. I knew there was a correlation with this Mint and the advent of errors. (Just kidding, of course!)

On the plus side, gold and silver are up, up, up

You got that right!

Makes sense. Will do. Tks.

I am sorry to hear that because what it implies is the TPG to which coins are submitted record just the submission and leave the other TPG twisting in the wind. Unbelievable! Thanks.

I am Spartacus. I am inclined to agree, and will even go further: when your particular set is "complete" and you are fully-invested but there is still room for upgrading, you will take your cue from "all-in Jeopardy James" and take the plunge irrespective of the leading economic indicators otherwise your set will languish in the purgatory of infinite dormancy.

No, I did not. As a dyed-in-the wool, card-carrying census stalker I asked myself a simple question: what is the likelihood that my three (3) cross-grade requests, involving foreign coins over a hundred years old at the upper-most grading tiers, would be honored "simultaneously" with submissions from another source for the years involved? The odds would be DNA-like astronomical. One in a quadrillion? All the necessary (correct) adjustments had already been made. If I am wrong, I have some work to do.

Impossible to answer without clarification and context.

Not for nothing, but how many people have actually taken a cold hard look at that VDB or the micro printing on these new bills.

Here's where my "rank amateur" status is confirmed: I honestly assumed the photographs taken by TPG were akin to the identification scanners used by the Gemological Institute (or similar concern) which records the unique markers on coins, much like DNA, to discourage theft, counterfeiting, etc.for all posterity so that if you were to resubmit a coin some guy further down the grading line would exclaim, "Hey Mike, com'ere a minute will you. Where've we seen this before?"

I find it absolutely despicable that the hobby I enjoyed as a child (where Morgan dollars were available for the asking from the local bank) has descended to the level that what I chose to regard as rumor is a robust phenomenon with a name: crack-out. The last time I violated a tenet of my religion, and requested cross-grading service, I was pleasantly surprised when one was up-graded and all labels were returned to me unsolicited and I saw that the necessary adjustments had been made to the respective TPG populations involved.

What a shame! I am sure she has her own theory as to why Brenner's initials were removed from the reverse AND why they were placed on Lincoln's right shoulder [where they can be viewed in all their incised, bas-relief splendor with a thirty mag lens]. Ha! Ha! Ha! Dino the Dinosaur, indeed.

Thanks.

I can see you have been talking to my sister again.

An encapsulated coin represents a population the sanctity of which must be honored if it is to have any meaning at all for a hobby beset by unreported de-encapsulations and mass meltings of unknown quantities of precious metals. A Hoard is simply a point of reference like S.S.C.A. shipwreck gold helpful in establishing provenance. Price is dictated by supply and demand. Some of the more notable Hoard releases have shifted the orbits of some major compilations for all time.

The commutation papers are on the governor's desk awaiting his signature.

True. Sounds way better than a hobo nickel.