Rare 1880 NFLD $2 Dollar Gold Piece. Grade Opinions?

coin, just a crazy thought maybe ICCS mixed up the certificates..maybe you should send them back and ask ..Heck if they did you would surely benefit 10 fold, but if they realize their snaffu then the 82 might come back as VF 30 or EF ? hummmmmm what to do ....

Look Scott, so far you've presented many an opinion (to which you're entitled to) with very little fact, at least within this thread. I've provided ANA guidelines, pictures of other coins and you choose to ignore and/or discredit them. With respect to being a dealer with a storefront, I for one predominantly sell online, either through ebay, established contacts, and other means, the storefront being the least profitable but it serves a valuable purpose. Since I mostly deal in foreign coins, most of my sales are out Canada. Hence my involvement with NGC in a dealer capacity. I'm not at all partial to ICCS, frankly if I had my way, I would only submit coins to NGC from a point of view of convenience, consistency and the fact that I have a few graders looking at my coin to agree on a grade as opposed to one. However from a business point of view, that doesn't always make sense. I'm more interested in TPGs consistency then the grades they assign and a clear criteria under which they do so. If anyone wants to interpret those grades as something else after the fact, so be it. At least I have a steady bar. I have not yet read the article you posted but grading is here to stay. It is an essential part of the global coin market place as it moves more and more online (hence the current price adjustment)and although it does remove some mystery and guess work, it provides a reasonable bar that's a necessity when buying coins as investment as long as there is consistency. As we proved here, it still leaves room within the hobby for a healthy disagreement. Although I really don't understand ICCS' grading in this specific case (one being in my benefit the other not). Both NGC and PCGS are expanding globally and just because it's big business, it doesn't mean that grading is a "sham". Although not all, I have many customers collecting grade ranges of coins who insist on graded coins. Although they differ on TPG preference, if there is a common thread is that they want them graded. Especially at MS65 and beyond.

DE59. Valid points with some light on the subject. The only argument one might use is that collectors shouldn't be experiencing a learning curve via ICCS graded coins that may reach too far beyond "global" grading standards and reference material. Especially in the world of globalization and more recently a more world wide interest in Canadian coins. What you will notice as the world gets smaller, the grading between TPGs will get more consistent. You're already seeing some slow change in ICCS graded coins. That's being influenced by other players growing their market share in grading Canadian coins and the results they provide (good and bad). Be it CCCS, PCGS or NGC. The likelihood of ICCS pulling the PCGSs of this world towards their style of grading is far less likely then in reverse. Interesting stuff.

I found this to be a fascinating discussion, and thank you. As a newbie, I hesitate to chime in, but perhaps the perspective of a semi-dolt consumer is useful. I would look at the 1882 MS-62 and think, looks like MS-63 dinged for a poor strike and a bag mark across the jaw. I would trust a professional grading service to properly grade strike versus circulation. I would look at the 1880 AU-55 and wonder why it doesn't say "cleaned". From the gradings I would presume that since the 1880 strike is superior to the 1882, the grading service tried to give the 1880 a break. How can anybody argue that all those scratches across the portrait and the fields came from the mint or bag handling? At online auction I would expect to pay AU-55 to MS-60 price for the 1882, and I'd be hard pressed to even go EF-40 price on the 1880.

Let's make matters even more complicated. Let's throw in this 1888 Obv3 ICCS graded coin with significantly more wear then the 80, also exhibits some hairlines and dull appearance. (I could have you guess but what's the point at this stage of the game, AU55).