NGC Grading

[supertooth]

Hello Folks!! Like almost everyone who submits coins to NGC---I do not always agree with them. In fact, there are times when I plain get angry with them. Why? Because I think that I am a pretty fair grader. Especially in my field of Walkers. For three years, I have been trying to figure out why they would not cross over a Walker that I have. It is a nice coin---looks totally not messed with---original color. I have looked at this coin for hours----in sunlight---in darkness---with no loupe---with many different powered loupes---in different kinds of lighting. Well, last night I was in bed watching the football game. It hit me that I wanted to check some coins. So I grabbed my regular nothing special loupe and turned on the old bedside table lamp. For some reason this 100watt bulbed light gave me a look at coins that I have never had before. I went to the safe---grabbed the questionable coin----and returned for another look. I am humbled. For the first time I saw WHY the folks at NGC had not crossed my coin. So I just had to tell a truth. Sometimes you can look at a coin----and just not see it. No matter how good you are or however long that you have been at it----you can and do make mistakes. I am a little mad at myself now for NGC picked up the problem in those few seconds---or at least one of them did----a problem that it took Bob three years to figure out. Kudos to the NGC graders. Be honest now. Anybody else do this only to later find out that they were right and you were wrong?? Bob [supertooth]

[BankNote1]

The best light to look at a coin is just the regular incandesant( I know I spellt it rong) light bulb! I think that is what NGC uses for grading.

[Hoot]

Great truth to realize, Bob. And yes, this has happened to me many more times than once. If you've only had it happen one time, then I thi8nk you're still doing quite well. I have basically learned the grading standards of NGC and PCGS by submissions to them - lots and lots. I always keep record of what I expected, then compare when the coins return. I now bat about 85-88% for coins I call right on the grade or a point lower than what is assigned. For the other 12-15%, I am often 1-2 points high or the doggone thing comes back BB'd. Funny about the BB's, though - I ususally resubmit those and about 90% of the time they come back graded as I first expected.

 

Some coins I cannot seem to get right, no matter how hard I try. I don't have a tensor lamp to look for hairlines, however, and that would be a likely asset.

 

Hoot

[TomB]

Why was the coin bagged to begin with? It seems to me that if it were that subtle a problem that it might be a skillful wipe.

[supertooth]

Hoot and Tom B-------Hoot old buddy. It has happened more than once---I assure you. But only this once could I never figure out -----WHY?? I would look at the coin every once in awhile. It never seemed to change. I just never could reason a reason for it not slabbing. TomB---the coin was not body bagged when I bought it. It was in an ANACS [no deductions] holder. It was vastly undergraded IMHO. That in itself DID set me wondering----An ANACS coin vastly undergraded?? Did not seem logical. But, when I tried to cross it over to NGC, I got my ANACS holder back. Last night I just finally tilted the coin in that particular light source--- just the right way----and saw the actual scratch that looked the culprit. Not a cleaning scratch. Just a regular scratch that seemed magnified for the first time. Looked three times worse than it had ever looked to me before. Then I spied 2 or 3 more that did not really bother me but, taken along with the main one----well, I could see why they would not cross it. I had been looking for a "cleaning" problem all the time and had never noticed the severity of the scratches. I can be soooo focused on "one" problem without looking at the obvious. Once a patient came in with a complaint of a bad tooth. I actually worked and fixed that tooth without paying attention to the one directly behind it. I was done before realizing that the other tooth also needed my attention. I had concentrated solely on fixing the patient"s chief complaint and had never looked at the adjacent tooth. I was doing what they wanted me to do. Naturally I fixed the other tooth on the next appointment. But even I was amazed at how focused that I had been----after all, the next tooth was only several millimeters away. But I had concentrated so hard on the one that I was working on. Same with the coin. I was looking for three years for some kind of cleaning problem. Never realized or never thought to think it might be something else.And just did not see them in all the other looks at the coin. May seem strange but it is the truth. Oh well---guess I am not perfect. Bob [supertooth]