I was looking at an ebay auction for an 1884 O Morgan. It is in a NGC slab and the grade is "Brilliant Uncirculated". Is that slab real? If so, why in the world is a top tier TPG using BU as an actual grade? I always thought BU was a general term for any uncirculated coin when you don't want to put an actual MS number on it.
Dealers/sellers can do bulk submissions for encapsulation only, and NGC will assign a grade of simply "Brilliant Uncirculated" or sometimes "Gem Brilliant Uncirculated". This is usually done at a discount to the full grading. It is a real slab and a real coin, and it is not all that uncommon.
Another way this grade can be given is if a coin does not meet the minimum grade requirements of the submission. For example, say you want the coin to be put in a slab with a grade of MS65 or higher. If the coin grades MS64 or lower then it may still be put in plastic but with a generic non-numeric grade.
HHMMmmm. So next we may end up with BU-63 or BU-66, etc. And then a Gem BU or GBU-65. Could get complicated though if it was Almost a GBU so then it would be a AGBU-64. And if toned, it would now be a TAGBU-64.
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