My Thoughts On Grading. PCGS And Others

TPA, which ANACS originated on today's volume, is needed.

TPG has so many flaws that it was doomed from the start.

The argument was that a TPG coin can be traded sight unseen. Coins are unique, so that will never work. They tried to make it work in several ways:

• refusal to grade anything but a "textbook" example, in effect saying coins were either "slobbable" or "worthless".
• once they ran out of "textbook" examples, they realized they needed more potential inventory, and that a genuine coin doesn't go from $1000 > worthless because of an imperfection.
• then they tried "market grading", which says "this au58 should bring a ms63 price, so it just became a ms63". The problem is, few buyers can agree on which au58 coins should be worth ms63 money. Worse, if the popularity of toning (for example) changes, you can end up with an au58 in an ms63 slob, which is now worth xf40 money.

The purpose of grading is to communicate the appearance in shorthand to some who can't see the item. If you have it in your fat furry paws, that's the grade; it looks exactly like what it looks like.

The solution is what the majority in this thread have suggested (and I pointed out decades ago): TPA and people learn how to grade for themselves (commonly known as "buy the coin, not the plastic").

I've always found it interesting that no one knows what Jesus looked like until they see him in a moldy piece of cheesecake, then they know exactly.