Grading Toned 1-Cent Coins

In my opinion, one downfall that Canadian TPG companies have, is that if a mint state 1-cent coin does not have more than 25% original red colour (lustre), then it is automatically assigned a grade MS-63 Brown or worse. Rare is the coin graded MS-64 Lustrous Brown. Whereas one aspect I do like of PCGS is that they look at the surfaces through the toning, and sometimes even take the toning as part of the eye-appeal, so grades MS-65 brown, are not uncommon. I guess my question to this grading forum is, should ICCS apply their technical grading to toned 1-cents, as they do for silver coins?

That said, I digress. This is a coin I picked up recently at the Coin Expo in Toronto earlier this month. The surfaces (fields and devices) are absolutely perfect (MS-65 in my opinion), and the toning is gorgeous, yet, there it was in an ICCS MS-63 brown holder with a $5 price tag on it. I snapped it up for $4, not because of the grade, but the bright green-blue-violet toning blew me away (I have a small side collection of mint-state gem-toned Canadian small cents).

Note that the colour play on toned coins is very difficult to photograph, and frankly, I am horrible at it - but this was my best shot at capturing the colours.



Here is the same coin, photographed perpendicular to the surface, with flat light.