Hi Jay... well the poster I was referring to has emailed me ... again.... Guess he has nothing better to do than to advise me how I should speak... or state my opinons.

Jay, I'm not trying to impose my opinion on anyone. I merely state what I think. If some folks agree with me ... that's fine ... if some folks disagree with me ... that's fine also.

At any rate, my post was in response to Brian's lead-off post titled, "Mint vs. Uncirculated" in which he asked if there was a difference between a mint chip and one that is uncirculated and that he has received a few chips from ebay auction that were "graded as mint" but were mis-represented as to qualtity... and provided a link to three examples. If you will go back to my original response, all I said in response was that chips are not "minted", but that coins and tokens were. I believe that reference was accurate then and it still is now. Some may disagree with that candid assessment.

Now we get into the dialogue part that you appropriately cited in your post. I believe that the club's goal of the grading standards oversight committee should be an attempt to distinguish terms that will specifically relate to chips ... not to automobiles or coins. You used an an example, "Alex's old cadillac is in mint condition". Is it possible that Alex's old cadillac may have been restored to mint condition? How does one restore an old chip to mint condition? I also believe (subject to dialogue or differences of opinions) that there is no accepted grade of "mint" in the coin hobby. There is "Mint State" ... of which there are eleven grades, MS60 through MS70... which is what began this whole controversy years ago... and which is what a lot of chip collectors have said they want no part of.

Going back to your cadillac example ... one could say that Alex's 1931 Chevy coupe with the rumble seat is "cute as a button" ... or could be described as a "creampuff" but I don't think those would be acceptable grading terms with chip collectors.

I know, I'm probably splitting hairs with the mint vs. uncirculated comparison and I'm well aware that many collectors use both terms interchangeably. But if the club is serious about establishing grading terms, I think we should be drafting terms that most club members will accept and use in their everyday conversations among other chippers. Without imposing anything on anybody, my personal opinion is that mint condition does not apply to chips since they are not "minted".

My Websters, like yours, defines the term mint as; "unmarred as if fresh from a mint ... (as in) ~coins". Interestingly, Mr. Webster deliberately inserted "~coins" following his definition. When I went to look up the word "unmarred" I could not find it in Webster's dictionary. Someone else posted the definition of "mint" as being the same as "excellent" and was asked if it were turned around ... would "excellent" mean the same as "mint"? I think that was an excellent point... please excuse the pun.

Archie