Are Msandpr 70 Only A Myth ? Or ,

yep I agree with most of you. I still hate seeing spots on my ms70 eagles from pcgs and ngc.
if a coin show ever comes to the tampa bay area I would love to take the coins in and ask why this spotted coin is ms70 and see what happens.
till then I am staying with my NGC brown label ms 69 eagle collection including the W mint marks. I just like um.

thank you for all your input !!
see ya
john

This is a timely thread. On Thursday, I went to my coin dealer and we discussed this very topic. I am extremely lucky, my coin dealer is incredibly reputable and honest.

He saves up until he has about 100 coins, silver and gold, to submit at one time. He showed me a few of them, and then I asked him the following question:

"What do you think they'll grade?"

His reply:

"I have some 4's, 5's, and maybe a few 6's. (MS 64, 65, 66)." I asked 'What about higher than that?" He said "Maybe, once in a while you hit one like that."

Grading is largely, key word 'largely,' an objective standard. However, there is an artistic component to grading. You really see where that comes in when you start talking about the difference between a MS 65-66, and grades higher. Certain coins - for no objective reason you can articulate - just strike you as better than others. Maybe it's the way they catch the light, maybe certain features are so razor sharp, or the way the fields are are certain character of smoothness. When you get to grades MS-65 and above, there may be no real discernible difference between a 66 and a 67, or there might be. Again, it's a bit of an art at that point.

While it is good advice to say 'buy the coin, not the holder' - and one I ascribe to, the fact is that number makes a major difference financially. So there will be an incentive to have 'perfect' coins. The reality is a truly 'perfect' coin is extremely rare, whereas an MS-70 isn't nearly so rare. Hence, it is a bit of a stock market. Perception of a grade is just as important as the 'actual' grade at those levels. Since the resulting difference in one grade point can be thousands of dollars, you are necessarily taking a risk.

I do like the 'investment' component of collecting, however, ultimately, I buy what I like. I also do not become overly attached to a number grade. My current penny collection (59-2012) is all MS. Are there any 70's in there? Maybe, I don't know. But an inherent part of investing is risk. And that 'risk' is quantifiable as the art of grading when it comes to coins.

In general, I buy what I like, and don't worry about the number overly much - unless there's a huge price jump between grades, in which case, I go for the best looking coin in the lower grade.

Perfection is nice, but not realistic in the world we live in.

It really depends what youre talking about. For business strikes and older coins yes it was rare if any even got there. For modern NIFC coins though a lot of them really are perfect. Our manufacturing and technology really has gotten that good for coins and really anything when you look at it. It wont be too long (10-20 years maybe less) until perfect NIFC coins are the norm and the non perfect is the exception

Derek, that's exactly it. Someone out there would look at my sunset IHC and freak out because it's very obvious that at some point in its life, it had to be cleaned to have toned the way it has. Me? I think it's beautiful. So what if it's never worth more than a buck because of the cleaning? It's a gorgeous conversation piece and it's simply lovely--and imagine the stories it could tell about how on earth it managed to tone back that way and what the circumstances must have been!