1917 C Newfoundland ,50 Cents , Opinions

I'll say EF-40 by a nose.

Okay, on review, VF-30 or possibly 35.

Tough crowd!

Guess I need to go back to grading school.

There is heavy wear on the central bands and jewels. The ribbon shows extensive wear and loss of detail. The eyebrow, moustache and beard have extensive wear. I can barely make out the beard near the ear. On the other hand, the pearls are not quite as worn as the other details. By appearance alone, it looks VF-20, but the stronger pearls and lettering suggest a weaker central strike. (The reverse also shows a stronger peripheral strike than central strike.) Balancing apparent wear and the strike, I see this coin coming in at VF-25.

It's a nice coin. The old cleaning wasn't harsh. I think it might straight grade.

I say a solid vf 20 not more though for ICCS imo. Maybe a ef 40 for NGC or PCGS

This is a VF 20. There is no VF25 in Canada.

Nice coin but short of VF 30 imo

True enough, historically. But VF-25 has arrived and isn't going away.

About 5 or 6 years ago, I started seeing bourse floor debates about VF-20 and VF-30 grades, with the debates resolved by midpoint pricing. That pricing has driven the VF-25 grading. It fills a big gap in the most common grade sequence for 19th and early 20th Century Canadian coins. VF-25 is recognized by the Saskatoon Coin Club and increasingly by dealers.

I grew up old school on grading: AG-G-VG-F-VF-EF-AU-UNC-BU-Gem. Those days are long gone. Numerical splits are getting finer and finer. This is largely driven by pricing and market demand, but certainly results in a windfall for TPGs. Morgan dollars described as "sliders" created AU-55 demand decades ago. The large price gaps between AU-50 and -55 and between -55 and MS-60 necessitated AU-53 and AU-58. All of these are widely accepted today. VF-25 is no different.

There are a lot of grades that aren't traditionally found in Canada, but they are being accepted today. MS-61, -62, and -64 aren't traditional, but everybody today uses them and has a horse sense about what they mean.

If VF-25 seems odd, just wait about four or five years. EF-48 is on the way. I'm already hearing the phrase "AU slider" to describe something between EF-45 and AU-50. I'm already seeing on-the-fly pricing adjustments for these "tweeners." I have heard the phrase "EF-48" a couple times this year. Get ready. It will be the new split.

As grading becomes more technical and less an art, these splits will become more critical. The biggest change is still a few years away: whole-coin grading. PCGS and NGC have the name, size, market share, and power to change Canadian grading standards to blended obverse/reverse grades, like American coins. It's coming. The market is already adjusting prices downward to compensate for the inevitable grade inflation that whole-coin grading will bring.

Trying to stop the new splits and changing standards is a bit like standing at the beach and telling the tide to stop coming in.

I'm not a fan of the changes, but I'm a realist. They are here. They aren't going away. And my customers expect them.

Just my Three Cents' worth.*

*Inflation. It's here to stay, too.