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Mexico five centavos

Started by Westwood Arms,

4 posts in this topic

Westwood Arms

Westwood Arms

Posted
Posted

I collect Mexico five centavos 1905-1935. Looking at the census for these coins, there are none graded MS 60. Plenty of AU 58 and MS 61 etc. but no 60s.

 

I have the highest respect for NGC grading, but the lack of MS 60 coins is statistically impossible.

 

What is the reason for this anomaly?

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physics-fan3.14

physics-fan3.14

Posted
Posted

The MS-60 grade is rarely used. Really, the quality difference between 60 and 61 is very minimal. Also, how big of a sample size are we talking about? If not a whole lot of coins are graded, you will be less probable to have a certain grade. Finally, census numbers have a large selection bias - I assume that people choose only better coins to submit, so you are less likely to have a beat up and ugly coin submitted.

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World Colonial

World Colonial

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Posted

I believe you are correct. Even if you look at coins with thousands or tens of thousands listed in the census such as the more common Morgan dollars or in the world coin realm, the 2008 South Africa Mandela 90th Birthday five rand, there are very few MS-60, and this is for coins with a population over 100,000.

 

As for the census generically, I think that a lot of collectors who do not collect US coins do not know how to read it correctly. There is a South Africa coin forum where I have tried to explain numerous times why the census count for this country is not larger. And this is for a country that has more world coins graded by NGC than any other. Yes, even Canada because collectors there prefer graded coins.

 

Aside from selection bias, most collectors outside the US do not prefer graded coins.

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Conder101

Conder101

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I can't speak to the world coin situation but with US coins back when PCGS and NGC first started MS-60 and 61 coins were very commonly encountered. Then suddenly around 1989 just as the US market exploded they just disappeared and MS-62 coins got a lot baggyier. Basically it seemed like the opinion at the services was that if it is good enough to be slabbed it HAS to be better than a 60. To some extent I think they still hold to that view.

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