tomseys

Just to follow up.. I sent a quick email to NGC and also to the seller of that coin and they both said similar thing.. that grades are determined by consensus.. Seller said coin is not perfect and many times they just eye it. NGC said they could look at it again etc... Seller of coin offered to exchange or refund... was willing to do exchange but ebay system was giving me problems with exchange option so it was easier to submit for refund so did that. I received other coin by PCGS and it looks superb even under 40x loupe. Reading around it seems both NGC and PCGS are pretty equivalent - one is not really better than the other in general - so I guess I just had some bad luck with that first coin with NGC. As an aside, I ordered a PCGS first strike philadelphia emergency release 2020 MS70 coin.. apparently there were only 240,000 of these minted at philadelphia mint for a few weeks.. temp. used because of covid issues I think at west point. This is supposed to be second rarest release (third but one is not counted). Am thinking about getting an NGC one as well. I guess it could still amount to nothing, lol, but seems to my novice eyes worth taking a little chance on.

I see. I do have one coming from them. I'll see how that one pans out. Thanks for the information Just Bob.

Thanks Bob. I agree with you. I'm a little concerned that even though it is rated ms70, others may not consider it that way since with a little snooping one can see it (though it does seem excellent with the exception of that). Maybe I'll return it.. such a hassle. Are the other coin grading associations/bodies similar in terms of how they define mint state 70 coins do you know?

With a little tilting, I can see the holes reflection right next to the first sun ray. Is this acceptable for MS-70? Like I said, I'm new and I really don't know how it should be. I've read that there is no such thing as a perfect coin but this seems especially far away from that ideal.. just not sure if this kind of mark is acceptable since i don't know what that is.. maybe it happened at the mint? Does it matter? If it is something that would normally disqualify it from a 70 rating, does that give it any more value since its sort of an error? Thanks again in advance for any thoughts.

Hi. I just very recently got into collecting silver coins and bullion. Anyway, so I recently bought a 2020 American Silver Eagle (early release) Graded MS 70 by NGC. Struck at the West Point Mint. My understanding is that MS 70 indicates a very high quality coin free of obvious imperfections. I think I read this is judged from 5X magnification. So i was looking the coin over with a loupe which has stronger magnification than 5x and the coin looks good except for one spot where there are two holes - looks like two nicks or shallow stab wounds right next to each other pretty evenly. I was surprised. So I took out my 5x mag lens, and knowing where the nicks/holes are I can see them. Actually, knowing where they are I can see them with the naked eye with a little tilting. Is this common or is it something caused by the mint and therefore acceptable or is it a grade error? Thanks for any thoughts. Here is a pic (not near as clear as it looks in person): Note : coin is in its slab as came from NGC.