Difference In Gradings Between Coins?

Good question, but not a simple answer. Other than market grading, there's quite a few other factors at work. I don't believe one coin series should be compared with other series in grading, particularly when comparing 18th, 19th, and early 20th century coins with moderns. Moderns are held to a higher quality standard than are older and scarcer coins, the latter of which are often forgiven for minor blemishes which would get a modern tossed in the reject pile. Morgans especially are in a league of their own. For example, an MS-67 Morgan will have no bag marks; from 67 and above, the grade differences are almost entirely due to the quality of the strikes whereas with moderns and very common earlier coins (your examples of Peace dollars, Mercury dimes, etc are very good), the quality of strike will be a dominating factor in about grades MS-63 and above (lots of qualifications here); any bag marks will put them down in the MS-60 level. There's just so many of these earlier 20th century (early moderns) in uncirculated condition that the TPGs have to be really picky to differentiate between one grade and the next or else we'd be seeing a lot more MS-69s and -70s.

Another factor at work in addition to market grading is dealer grading wherein dealers with large and repeated submissions will tend to see grades slightly above those of us who are merely occasional submitters. Related to the same are the precious population reports, especially in Morgans where about 2 1/2 years ago, the top TPGs really tightened their standards seemingly in an attempt to lower the numbers of mid- and upper MS grades in comparison to lower MS grades in what appears to be an effort to increase the values of the mid- and higher MS coins. This is just another form of market grading to manipulate the values of coins, especially Morgans. Lots of qualifications here also.

Do you mean that if a major dealer submitted coins vs a regular joe that they may actually get higher grades back on average? If so that would be a total scam. According to the TPG's no matter who submits a coin the graders never know who owns those coins and never effects final grades given.

I can agree with the other posters that Market grading can and does influence certian coin series grades,, what your post is missing is company names of the comparison coins,, are they coins graded by the same grading company ?

This should also be taken into account.

Metalman

Thanks. While this article is interesting it's hard for me to believe any of it. First off we are not talking about 1 grade difference but 4 grades on BOTH coins? I would be shocked if this happen whole situation happened for even 1 grade. And from what I understand both coins were sent in TWICE each once under the first guy and then from the dealer. When the first guy sent them in he got back exactly the same low grades as the first time he sent them in. Then this whole process was repeated by the dealer and the EXACT same high grades came back from the first time sent in by the dealer. And they weren't regrades but sent in cracked out and raw. The chance of this is almost impossible.

Now is the each person sent in coins like a for 15 day service, cracked them out and resend under 1 day service then may be it's possible to get 1 grade higher which I agree will still be wrong but may happen. I would sure like to see this video of this whole test and wonder if it was one of the top four companies. If this is even possible I'll stop sending my own coins in and find a big dealer.

I did recently try the crack out, regrade and crossover game with many coins and it was all a waste. I sent coins to NGC for regrades, PCGS/NGC coins to both ANACS and ICG for upgrades and cracked some PCI coins out and sent to ICG. There was more than 30 coins in this test and it was all a waste of many $30 submission fees. Only one coin was upped one grade by NGC, most of the PCI to ICG coins were downgraded, all of the rest to both ANACS and ICG were left in the original NGC/PCGS holders with the same grade. And all of these coins were handpicked first as being real nice for their original grades. Plus the wait times to get back these coins were ridiculous using 15 day submissions for all.

The only way to prove/disprove this is for me once again to send in some coins to PCGS/NGC for grading then crack them out and resend them in again through a local dealer. I have a couple shops in my area but must find one that at least sends in like 100+ coins per month I would think. If the SAME coins get graded higher or even some of them so or even get like 2 points higher I would be shocked. I liked to also try this with some slabbed coins and send them in for regrades. As I said I recently did this with many what I think to be undergraded coins and only one from NGC came back higher from a MS62 to a MS63. The rest all came back with the same grades. It was all a big waste of money and time.

And as far as ICG/ANACS may be more liberal in grading I don't believe that either. I sent in many PCGS/NGC coins for crossovers to ICG/ANACS requesting one grade higher and not one coin crossovered. And we are talking like 20 coins all hand picked that looked like PQ coins. I wonder if I cracked them out instead would they have gotten a higher grade? It's almost like ICG/ANACS looks at the coin and says well PCGS/NGC graded this so we'll agree to make us not look bad and just send them back as is. Who knows in this crazy business or should I say game which what it is?

I have a very close friend whose son is a PCGS grader. He says that he looks at and grades so many coins he quite honestly doesn't have the time to worry about who submitted what, he just grades 'em as he sees them.