A Non-American View Of Third Party Grading

Rather than ruining someone else's thread I thought It might be worth making comment here reflecting a Non-North American perspective of 3rd party grading. For context see this thread:

https://goccf.com/t/134096#1191668





For non-North American based collectors third party grading seems a little strange. In Mainland Europe, particularly, some of the advantages of slabbing just don't exist.

1. As noted in the link above. In Germany ( and Austria where I live) Consumer law is much more robust than in America. If a coin is proved a fake the seller ( if a professional auctioneer or dealer) is required to take it back and refund the purchase price. As a result of this many well established dealers offer life time guarantees on the coin. If a purchase is ever proved a fake then the dealer will accept it back and return the purchase price. Of course one may say the weak point of this is what happens if the seller ceases trading... however if one buys from well established dealers/Auctioneers this risk is minimized to equivalence with that of using one of the main grading companies.

2. American grading. Its a very complicated system and it is generally not understood or,at times, not respected by mainland European collectors. The biggest issue: From an outsiders perspective American grades have suffered from massive grade inflation. In my limited experience in 2003 I used to take the American grade and drop it one level to get the Actual European grade assessment: ( In English speak) an UNC coin would actually only rate EF. Now in 2012 I have to drop the American grade by at least two levels. I have seen MS graded coins that I would assess as almost Extra fine, and very few Mint state assessed coins would actually reach an uncirculated grade in Europe and the lower MS grades would only warrant a VF grade. I think the main issue here is: The American Grading system is not directly convertible to its European, UK, Australasian counterparts.

3. Language on the slabs, I am a native English speaker living in a German speaking country..... I would expect to see German grading on Slabs I might buy especially, Coins produced in the German Language. Building up a Slabbed collection in a non native language is, I imagine, for a non-English speaker uncomfortable.

4. From the NGC web site:




Look back at my point 1 Here in Europe if I buy a coin and find that the attribution is incorrect I get my money back. In my collecting field ( as eccentric as it is) I have seen American slabbed European coins miss described. So immediately the impression is gained that American Professional grading companies lack the expected competencies when it comes to non-American coins. And of course failing to provide the guarantee's that are naturally expected in Europe (and enforced by law) just makes slabbing more un-attractive. In other words the cost benefit ratio is abysmal especially when I know submitting a coin for slabbing will see me waive my consumer rights.

5. Many European coins are "three sided". Have a look at this Heritage record of an Austrian 1888 medal.

http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleN...&lotNo=26297

I have one of these already but I was interested in bidding on this, now sold, lot. I had been informed by a dealer ( I have been unable to confirm that this is true) that there are two varieties a common plain edge and a much rarer Maria Theresa Thaler edge. I emailed Heritage and asked what was on the edge and they couldn't tell me..result was I didn't even try to bid (If it had a plain edge I would have wanted it as my current example has the MTT edge)

This is not a one off example many 18th century Habsburg varieties are identified by the edge markings...and even the newer slabs do not adequately allow examination of the edge.


There are other issues but I think this reflection is a little too long already. The Third party grading companies are not approaching outside markets appropriately. Even Mc Donalds adjusts to the non-American markets it operates in. The last Coin fair I attended in Vienna I noticed that the least visited stand ( I was there all day) was one belonging to one of the main stream grading companies. When I say least visited I mean one person looking at the stand in two hours ( mid day) when many of the other stands were shoulder to shoulder room only. What shocked me was to see later reports from that company about how successful their stand was.

Now don't think I am anti-slabbing; I am not. I think if your an American collector or a collector of American coins that slabbing is very appropriate. What I am firm on ( and I hope someone from a grading company takes notice of this): I will not use a third party grading company until I am offered services that match the needs of the market that I buy and sell in as opposed to the current approach of attempting to modify the market to suit their needs.