Brilliant uncirculated ? Totally lost . 1 1

[Ohnoimbroke]

I have read and understand NGC brilliant uncirculated . Today I went to my local pawn shop to find 2 BU coins , 1 a 1884 Morgan & 1921 peace dollar . They both looked awesome . Shiny ect . And I'm confused if those grades means "no details" . Those coins looked so good to me . I almost overextended myself by getting one . Can a BU ngc graded coin mean no details or is a "60" or what . Why wouldn't they just put a grade on it . No matter what ?

[Coinbuf]

On 3/3/2023 at 4:25 PM, Ohnoimbroke said:

I have read and understand NGC brilliant uncirculated . Today I went to my local pawn shop to find 2 BU coins , 1 a 1884 Morgan & 1921 peace dollar . They both looked awesome . Shiny ect . And I'm confused if those grades means "no details" . Those coins looked so good to me . I almost overextended myself by getting one . Can a BU ngc graded coin mean no details or is a "60" or what . Why wouldn't they just put a grade on it . No matter what ?

Those grades are requested by the submitter because they get a cheaper price on the grading over having NGC place a numerical grade.   It doesn't mean that the coin(s) are cleaned or would otherwise receive a details grade, however, it also doesn't mean that they might not have received a details grade if a numerical grade had been requested by the original submitter.   It also is not an indication of any grade, although often coins that are submitted in this manner would receive low MS grades (60-62).  That can only be determined on a coin by coin basis.

[Sandon]

   If you're talking about coins in NGC holders that just say "Brilliant Uncirculated" without a number, I understand that these are from discounted bulk submissions where the graders just checked that the coins are genuine and would grade at least MS 60. They're almost certainly not "gems" that would grade MS 65 or higher. I'm rather surprised that someone would submit a 1921 Peace dollar under such an arrangement, as it is a more valuable coin. I thought that only common date coins would be submitted this way.

  A coin that is "details" graded is one that has some significant impairment, such as corrosion, some sort of damage, or improper "cleaning". I would have assumed that NGC wouldn't call such coins "Brilliant Uncirculated", but perhaps @Coinbuf, who replied while I was writing this, knows something that I don't.

[EagleRJO]

A BU or Brilliant Uncirculated adjectival grade by NGC simply means it would grade anywhere from MS60 to MS70, and likely MS60 to MS62.  There is also Choice Uncirculated (MS63 to MS64) and Gem Uncirculated (MS65 to MS70).

https://www.ngccoin.com/coin-grading/grading-scale/adjectival-grades/

That BU adjectival grade means its an unimpaired mint state coin, and not a "no details" or "details" coin with impairments.  They are typically from bulk submissions where a discount is provided if just the BU grade is assigned, instead of taking the time to assign a specific numeric grade, for coins below a specified MS number (say MS65) as designated by the submitter.

Edited March 4, 2023 by EagleRJO