Grading: A Matter of Opinion

The following paragraphs, which describe modern grading "precision" and encapsulated (slabbed) coins, are intended as a caveat. As a professional rare coin dealer I have to grade coins every day, and each day I see numerous coins graded by others. Grading has been, is presently, and probably always will be an art and a matter of opinion. To be sure, there are some elements of a science, such as the measurement of wear on a coin or the counting of nicks and scratches, but the final determination is a judgment call. A computer can also measure wear or count abrasions, and come up with a precise number such as 65.48, but there is no computer to let me or you know if one coin graded as MS-65 is a low-end piece, unattractive and unappealing, worth $500, and if another is an aesthetically satisfying coin worth $1,000.

I suggest that you take nothing for granted, but be aware that even though numbers such as MS-61, MS-65, etc. have a scientific or mathematical ring to them, they are not precise determinants of market value. I consider this statement to be one of the most important in this text.

Many grading services have been created during the past decade or so. These are businesses, run for a profit, which for a fee give an opinion as to the grade of a coin. Often there is a sliding fee schedule, with fast turnaround costing several times more than normal service (which in busy periods can take up to several months).

As noted, grading was, is, and probably always will be a matter of opinion. So far as I have been able to determine, grading services, computers, and wishful thinking will not change this seemingly immutable fact. As an example, I quote from a study conducted by Kevin Foley, editor of The Centinel, official journal of the Central States Numismatic Society. He sent 10 different coins to four different professional grading services. On not a single coin did the four services agree on the grade, and for one coin, a 1919 Standing Liberty quarter, professional opinions ranged all the way from AU-55 to MS-65.

In my office is a Morgan silver dollar which was sent to the same grading service on three different occasions and each time was returned with a different grade.

In one of our auction sales a $10 gold piece was offered. The purchaser later sent it to a grading service, and it was returned with the notation: "Damaged, cannot be certified." Neither the purchaser nor I could see any traces of damage, therefore the coin was re-sent to the same service. Apparently someone else at the service saw it the second time around, for it came back certified, in a slab, with no mention of any damage, and at a grade 10 points higher than it was listed in our auction catalogue!

The late Norman Stack, the well-known dealer, showed me a Liberty Head $20 piece which he sent four times to grading services and had it returned in slabs marked with grades of MS-61, MS-62, MS-63, and MS-64. Harvey Stack, CEO of Stack's, tells of sending a gold dollar to a grading service, having it certified as AU-50, then sending it back to the same service, after which resubmission it "improved" to MS-60. What was a worn coin the first time around now was Uncirculated!