1909-S Indian Head Cent For Grading Vs. PCGS

Just FYI. I am looking at the LIBERTY and the feather detail, and I see VG-10. I look at the reverse and see something between VG-10 and F-12.

VG-8

In the words of the late Frank Barone from "Everybody loves Raymond," "What a lot of cr*p!"

Yes, some dates are better struck than others, but you are supposed to be an expert grader, you should know which ones fall into that category, or it should be in the corporate information source.

I would guess that they gave a grade of F-15, TPGraders are human and I'm sure after looking at hundreds, if not thousands, they did let a few go above the norm at end of week.

By the circulation looks VG-10. But I'd be in the F-12 camp for a guess for PCGS.

PCGS F12.

There's a story behind this post.

I've been looking for a lower grade but relatively problem free 1909-S to fill the last hole in my circulated IHC Dansco, either raw or to crack out of a slab. While browsing ebay, this coin showed up. The bid level at the time was, in my opinion, quite low for the TPG-assigned grade, without much interest, and that immediately got me wondering why, so I took a good look at the coin, and came to the conclusion that by my (20+ year old) grading standards I would grade this coin around VG10, as I did not feel that it had sufficient obverse detail -- especially in LIBERTY -- to merit a full Fine grade, despite good eye appeal and a slightly better reverse. My thought was this would probably be a perfect VG10 for a green CAC, but thinking it was a bit overgraded at Fine 12, I passed on bidding.

This coin ended up selling for $347, which is a low sale price for a problem free PCGS graded example in any VG or F grade, and now I'm wondering if my grading standards were perhaps a bit too strict when I had this coin at a VG10 and if I erred in thinking it was overgraded by PCGS. This date and MM have been selling for $375-$425 consistently in problem-free VG+/F slabs when you can find one that's reasonably accurately graded.

It is interesting to see that CCF thinks this coin (in the first post) is anywhere from VG8 to F15, with an outlier VF grade. That's a grading window that historically was fairly clearly defined, but now seems to be rather murky, and I am at a loss as to why this is the case.

Compare it to this PCGS F12 1909-S IHC from another seller which was at $380 yesterday, and which I would grade at G4 to G6 by my standards (and which the seller is probably going to be stuck with forever):

The grading on that one might be a mechanical/clerical error. The same seller has another 1909-S Indian in PCGS F12 with a cert number 1 digit off from this one. There is a huge difference between the 2 coins but the seller is asking the same price for both!

This one looks like a G06: http://www.ebay.com/itm/14217341694...RK:MEBIDX:IT

This one I can see as an F12: http://www.ebay.com/itm/14217223210...RK:MEBIDX:IT

Something went wrong at PCGS with this submission.