Understanding The Sheldon Grading System

Same here,for ebay where your looking at a Photo scan its fairly simple,crapscrap-grubby-reasonable-OK-AUNC & UNC.
I'm sorry to any dealers reading this but some of the pro-gradings I've come across over the years are laughable and designed to deceive.

Grade inflation in the US, it should be noted, is not uniform. In other words, the grading companies will grade a "key" date of a type much higher than a common date in the exact same condition.

But the 70-point Sheldon scale is probably going to be dumped by the big graders in favour of a 100-point system pretty soon, so that they can get people to send their coins in for re-grading.

I've written up a brief article to help explain some of the conversions between the Australian and PCGS grading systems. I hope you find it handy.

Here's the link:
http://www.drakesterling.com/coins-...what-is-pcgs

Eric

I would have to disagree with you mob of roos. I have seen a number of coins that accurately cross over at the grades by ANDA. Anyway I believe that it is just that us Australians want to feel like we are better than the Americans but objectively PCGS grading crosses over exceptionally well through Eric's article.

I much prefer the old British system for less than MS60 mint condition grades.
I much prefer the Sheldon system for MS60 to 70 grades.

Unfortunately, MS60 to 70 is more sensitive to a variation in grading opinion.
There can be huge valuation differences MS60 to 70, which probably explains why grading opinions can be so opinionated.

There has probably been court cases over this. That is why TPG via the CCF is so good.
We are anonymous and genuinely TP, with no motivation to gradeflation, that some TPG's are exposed to.

Actually NONE of my coins are slabbed, although I have screw encapsulated a few of them myself for protection.

The Mint NEVER issued coins in slobs so there ARE some nice coins out there RAW.
You have to learn to grade by images alone and be willing to take the odd punt if buying "On Line".
I also pays to note the GOOD coins you get and who sold them to you, That way you can be on the lookout when they list more coins

Don't start me off on that Peter Wallace Maggot, His coins are easily recognisable due to the highly buffed surfaces

There is a push by some Australian dealers to overprice slabbed Australian coins. The coins themselves are graded and slabbed in the U.S. in bulk, then shipped back to Australia.

Fortunately for myself, I don't have a significant collection of Australian coins any more. Been there done that, many years ago, and so I am somewhat insulated from the dealer push that I observe.

I perceive that there is, in the pricing structure of slabbed Australian coins, a built in element of over pricing. I feel that I can say this fairly, because I am somewhat of a third party observer to this pricing trend.

The slabs are just being used to justify an inflated price.

Trout, it can get very expensive to buy the nice stuff raw. A good seller puts up decent images and you can get an accurate idea of the grade. But how often on this forum have we seen posters put up images of say a couple of better grade 1915 shillings and ask us for our opinions? We then debate the grade,the lustre, the detracting features and if the coin has been dipped. And even then we get 3 different opinions.
At a grand a punt it gets very expensive to find out which are the better sellers to watch. Plus how many sellers have regular offerings of high grade raw coins to bid on.
Some of my best buys have been from sellers that I have never purchased from before, I then add them to my favourites but they usually have nothing else to follow.
For fakers favourites (like the centenary florin) who can now take a chance on raw coins online?