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 Replies: 8 / Views: 1,187 |
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Valued Member
United States
131 Posts |
I was looking at photograde coins of Half Cents capped busts( http://www.pcgs.com/photograde/#/Dr...fCent/Grades )and it looked to me that the EF-45 had better features than the AU-50... the reason I ask is I am getting ready to start a 7070 book and I want to put AU coins in it but looking at prices and some of the coins being marked AU, it looks like I would get better coins marked EF or XF for a better price... am I the only one that has seen this?... thanks in advance... PEACE... |
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Moderator
 United States
14463 Posts |
Are you doing the 7070 to resell or for your personal enjoyment? Are you going to have a professionally graded 7070, or are you going to have coins that are not professionally graded in the album? - If going to resell, I suppose get the best you can afford. - If its only for your personal enjoyment, go with eye-appeal or what makes you happy.  |
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Valued Member
United States
339 Posts |
I agree, that does seem really odd.
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Valued Member
United States
274 Posts |
The AU coin could of had a weak strike to start with, vs a XF with a great strike. This is when eye appeal comes into play!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
919 Posts |
I agree with jayman. The strike can play tricks on you when grading between XF and AU. It will be tough from a photo trying to tell the difference between the two grades. It will really depend on quality of the surface and rubs. In hand the surfaces of an AU50 coin should look better then an EF45.
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Valued Member
United States
373 Posts |
Rick Snow has a great set of videos on grading Indian Head cents, in which he notes that XF45 coins are often much more appealing than AU50's. His point-of-view (I'm paraphrasing from memory) is that an AU50 is the lowest end AU - if you like, a "problem" AU - while the XF45 is the highest end XF - or an XF with "something special." He concludes that XF45 offers a lot of value and is a great collecting grade. Now, hopefully, a high-end AU (AU55 or AU58) should offer a clear advantage in detail and eye appeal over an XF45. So, perhaps the question is not whether to collect XF versus AU, but whether to collect high-end XF versus low-end AU. (Or whether to pay a fair amount more for high-end AU's.) |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5825 Posts |
There are so many factors that go into grading the high-end circulated coins.
That means a single picture or a short verbal description really can't cover all possibilities.
Top that off with the different graders AND the sort of day they're having and things just don't fit neatly into specific grades.
And then there's eye appeal which can muddy up grading.
But one thing that DOES seem to hold up well is AU-58.
MANY collectors prefer them to MS coins as high as MS-63.
AU-58 definitely blows away anything from MS-60 through MS-62 and often compares favorably with MS-64.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
919 Posts |
kanga you nailed it. I used to look for EF WLH's for my full set. As soon as I got some AU58's I was hooked. I really prefer a fully struck AU58 because it usually has some color along with some mint luster and some history. It was at least out there for a little bit 100 years ago before it was stored away. Glad to see others like that grade too.
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Valued Member
United States
373 Posts |
I'm with you, kanga and tpg22. I love the AU58 grade for combining all the factors that make a coin special to me: a bit of history, sharp design details, mint luster, and great eye appeal.
Of course, there are plenty of coins slabbed at AU58 that don't meet those criteria. But when the grade is assigned properly, that's a coin you won't beat until you hit the near-gem grades.
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Replies: 8 / Views: 1,187 |
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Posted 09/22/2013 05:22 am
