Anyone have a good way to easily look at graded populations? 1 1

[Woods020]

As I look at coins for purchase or to potentially send to CAC I try and look at as many other graded examples as I can. As it is today I go to Heritage or GC and look at as many as I can find, but it’s tedious and not always a large sample size I can find. Is anyone aware of a way to look at a grade, at say NGC or PCGS, and scroll through coins they have assigned a given grade? Or is just hunting a pecking through auction sites the best way you know of?

[World Colonial]

Not to my knowledge.  Not only is the cert number necessary to verify an NGC ocin, so is the grade. 

What you are describing seems to require the ability to click on the population count and have it expand to display every coin graded at a particular grade.  Nice idea but don't see it ever happening, even assuming every coin was imaged which it isn't.

[Woods020]

On 7/23/2021 at 10:30 AM, World Colonial said:

Not to my knowledge.  Not only is the cert number necessary to verify an NGC ocin, so is the grade. 

What you are describing seems to require the ability to click on the population count and have it expand to display every coin graded at a particular grade.  Nice idea but don't see it ever happening, even assuming every coin was imaged which it isn't.

You are correct. It would make life so much easier if there was an easy way to pull up say 10 or 12 coins of a given grade and compare to see what exactly is strong for the grade and what isn’t. I have tried everything I can think of and it just doesn’t seem to exist that I can find. And it takes forever to try and find 10 or 12 examples to compare looking on auction sites 

[Just Bob]

PCGS Coin Facts will give you two or three pictures of coins in each grade, I believe. According to a thread,( since removed,) on the CU forum, they used to have multiple pictures. This was changed because Laura Sperber, (also since removed) complained about people resubmitting coins and the pictures of the same coin showing up with different grades. She claimed that this evidence of grade inflation was ruining her business, and should be taken off the internet. Many people disagreed, not just because they wanted to have more pictures for research purposes like yours, but they believed that dishonesty was not the best policy.

[Coinbuf]

The NGC coin explorer is the best tool that I am aware of here on the NGC site; the only issue is that there are only photos that have been uploaded by the individual members of their coins and the quality of the images is very hit or miss.   PCGS has coinfacts which is a similar tool, unfortunately several years ago most of the coinfacts photos were purged as members were using coinfacts images to point out the rampant gradeflation.     However photos have been slowly being repopulated back into coinfacts, this is good and bas as those photos are only the glamor shot TV photos taken by PCGS.   While the photos are high quality I have on many an occasion seen coins that look very little in hand like the TV shots. 

[Coinbuf]

On 7/23/2021 at 9:51 AM, Just Bob said:

PCGS Coin Facts will give you two or three pictures of coins in each grade, I believe. According to a thread,( since removed,) on the CU forum, they used to have multiple pictures. This was changed because Laura Sperber, (also since removed) complained about people resubmitting coins and the pictures of the same coin showing up with different grades. She claimed that this evidence of grade inflation was ruining her business, and should be taken off the internet. Many people disagreed, not just because they wanted to have more pictures for research purposes like yours, but they believed that dishonesty was not the best policy.

Just one clarification, there is the ability to see more than just the two or three that pop up initially.  There is a button to click "see more images" that will allow you to see other images.

[Woods020]

On 7/23/2021 at 11:57 AM, Coinbuf said:

Just one clarification, there is the ability to see more than just the two or three that pop up initially.  There is a button to click "see more images" that will allow you to see other images.

I use photo grade on PCGS a lot, but haven’t seen this. I’ll look for it. It would be great if you clicked on say MS65 and it gave you more. Thank you. 

[Woods020]

I assume CAC has a proprietary database of some sort they compare coins in like grades with. Maybe I’ll slowly start accumulating my own little database over time of graded coins when I see good pictures. If only grading standards would stay consistent over time to allow that……

[Coinbuf]

On 7/23/2021 at 10:15 AM, Woods020 said:

I use photo grade on PCGS a lot, but haven’t seen this. I’ll look for it. It would be great if you clicked on say MS65 and it gave you more. Thank you. 

It won't give you more for a specific grade just more photos than the two or three that initially pop up.   The additional images will show up in grade order, there is no way to only see a specific grade as far as I know.

[MarkFeld]

I’m not certain if I understand your question correctly. For example, however, I went to the Heritage Auction Archives, filled in the search box with  “1877 MS63”, chose “Indian Cents” from the drop-down menu, performed a search sorted by “Most Recent Sales” and was able to view approximately four dozen results. If you were already aware of that option, I apologize.

[Woods020]

On 7/23/2021 at 12:36 PM, MarkFeld said:

I’m not certain if I understand your question correctly. For example, however, I went to the Heritage Auction Archives, filled in the search box with  “1877 MS63”, chose “Indian Cents” from the drop-down menu, performed a search sorted by “Most Recent Sales” and was able to view approximately four dozen results. If you were already aware of that option, I apologize.

Mark I was not. However I have been searching I wasn’t getting nearly that many options. Sounds like you told me exactly what I was looking for. We all say this one looks strong, solid, weak, etc for grade and often times it’s splitting hairs. And information is not on the side of the numismatist. So I am trying to arm myself with a way to focus in on what would be considered strong or weak for grade. Your option will be very helpful. In an ideal world it would be together and not have to click from auction to auction but in this case that work is the least of my worries. Thank you!

Edited July 23, 2021 by Woods020

[MarkFeld]

On 7/23/2021 at 12:56 PM, Woods020 said:

Mark I was not. However I have been searching I wasn’t getting nearly that many options. Sounds like you told me exactly what I was looking for. We all say this one looks strong, solid, weak, etc for grade and often times it’s splitting hairs. And information is not on the side of the numismatist. So I am trying to arm myself with a way to focus in on what would be considered strong or weak for grade. Your option will be very helpful. In an ideal world it would be together and not have to click from auction to auction but in this case that work is the least of my worries. Thank you!

I’m glad that will be of some help - thanks for letting me know. Depending upon the type, date and grade you’re searching for, you could get far fewer or many more results than I obtained in my particular search.

[RWB]

The Heritage auction database is the best available. The staff and corporate management deserve a lot of credit for maintaining image quality despite bookkeeper pressure to cut resolution and save a few pennies (or cents).

[Henri Charriere]

I wasn't aware this was a problem, but I definitely see where it would be for someone who diversifies. For me it entails relying completely on TPGS' expert "opinions." That back-fired spectacularly when a 1909 NGC MS-67 crossed uneventfully in California, but a 1910 NGC MS-67 did not.  I re-examined all my 67's and quickly realized the 1910 was chock full of chatter.  One would think, having been fully reimbursed, I would let sleeping dogs lie.  But the fact it was quickly returned to stock on-line, continues to grate at me. Unfortunately, there is no one with the authority to demand a coin be returned for regrading. @MarkFeld's referral to the Heritage database is your soundest option.

[GoldFinger1969]

On 7/23/2021 at 8:25 PM, RWB said:

The Heritage auction database is the best available. The staff and corporate management deserve a lot of credit for maintaining image quality despite bookkeeper pressure to cut resolution and save a few pennies (or cents).

I'm a small-fry and if not for the high-res pics on HA Archives, I never would have joined and thrown them all the business I have.    Hope they don't change a thing.