Brilliant, or essentially so, the lustrous surfaces are silky smooth..........

[Leothelion]

Here's more so or less on Nevadaman's collection as a single coin was returned for resale! But that doesn't say much for those who are eating their costs on many of the overgraded and non full step nickels from that auction.

Sometimes I believe these big auction houses are worst then the TGC's when it comes to grossly misrepresenting the grade of a coin. Compare the following two descriptions of the same coin;

Brilliant, or essentially so, the lustrous surfaces are silky smooth from rim-to-rim. Obviously well preserved since the time of delivery--an uncommon feature for the issue--both sides possess impressively sharp striking quality. This is a conditionally rare example for the advanced Jefferson Nickel specialist.

 

And the desription from the sale of the Nevadaman's collection.

The premier S-mint Nickel of the 1950s, the 1951-S is quite challenging to locate at the Gem Full Steps grade level. The present example is satin-to-softly frosted in luster quality with impressively sharp striking detail. There are also no bagmarks of note, as one should expect for the MS-66 designation.

 

What happen to the "satin-to-softly frosted in luster quality," and the "no bagmarks of note"!

 

This is just another big disillusion on the hobby and it's collectors and any new people that come to the hobby!

 

Leo

[Narmuriel]

I'm still learning how to grade here, but those are seriously overgraded, arent they?

[Leothelion]

Narmureil

Yes, the coin has been overgraded by PCGS and Bowers and Merena has written two exaggerated descriptions for the same coin. If you click back a page in that second description to the Nevadaman's collection or click here, you will find dozons of overstated descriptions and the rediculous prices people paid for them.

Since your learning the ropes in grading your coins, here are some links that don't really help much on what are the grading standards.

NGC Then click on NGC Grading And then you'll need to click on that little picture that says "Grading"

Then scoll down to see the Grading scale NGC uses but there are no definitions here. If you do a little reading on this page you will come to the paragraph that says;

Each coin is examined by one grader at a time, and he enters his grade (using the Sheldon numerical scale from one to 70, an industry standard) into the system.

But I can't find the descriptions to that "Industry Standard" of grading coins!

Doing a web search on the Sheldon numerical scale does not help much either!

I can't find any offers here in buying a good book on grading coins!

If you look in their glossary, there's not much help there either.

Let's do another web search on "Sheldon numerical scale industry standard".

Two websites come up for that search but there is still no information on this industry standard of grading coins!

How about "grading coins"

There she blows! Over 25000 links! You should be able to find some info on grading coins is some of those websites.

Well, I give up! Good luck to you with learning how to grade your coins!

 

Leo

[melmcbee]

Leo, I always love your posts

Anyway, someone on this board suggested that I buy a book called Photograde by James F. Ruddy. I bought the book and it has alot of info on the grading systems in use such as the Sheldon system and it also breaks down the grades into specific coins. However, I just opened the page to the nickels to give you an example and it only shows the grades of G-4 to AU50. Oh well I tried It still has good info on grading. And it even talks about "The Official ANA Grading Standards for the United States" as a reference to grades MS60-MS70. But he seemed to reflect on the inconsistencies of the grading system. I think I am not finding you a solid reference but strenghthening your resolve on the subject. Sorry

[michael]

a really interesting thread

 

michael

[Leothelion]

Leo, I always love your posts

Anyway, someone on this board suggested that I buy a book called Photograde by James F. Ruddy. I bought the book and it has alot of info on the grading systems in use such as the Sheldon system and it also breaks down the grades into specific coins. However, I just opened the page to the nickels to give you an example and it only shows the grades of G-4 to AU50. Oh well I tried It still has good info on grading. And it even talks about "The Official ANA Grading Standards for the United States" as a reference to grades MS60-MS70. But he seemed to reflect on the inconsistencies of the grading system. I think I am not finding you a solid reference but strenghthening your resolve on the subject. Sorry

 

PCGS doesn't do any better in educating the collector on how to grade coins! Check out their home page! Right off the bat they're promoting their registry, population report and price guide! They do show some grade definitions scattered throughout their A to Z Lingo link but that's about it!

I guess it's not in the best interests of these two TGC's to help educate the collector on how to grade coins!

The less the collector knows about how to grade coins equals the greater amount of possible submissions per custumer!

Yeah, right!

 

Leo