Grading Differences For Canadian Dollars MS 65-Ms-66

It's tough to quantify a subjective art in absolute terms. The combination of the three factors of luster, strike and surfaces can combine in different ways to give you different final grades. Two coins with identical surfaces could receive different grades based on a stronger strike on one coin, or one coin could have better luster and a slightly weaker strike and both could come out graded the same.

Generally luster and strike are both pretty good at the MS-65 level, so I expect (hope) to see slightly cleaner surfaces on the 66 coin in comparison.

ok 1cent....
are we dependant on ONE in canada? GOD maybe, as in ICCS?
what if GOD is wrong.? perhaps GOD is biased? toward his own issues..?...and that has been proven many times over...
HHB

If you actually plot a statistical distribution of MS and PL dollars, PCGS and NGC fall almost on top of each other and ICCS is 1-1.5 grade lower (ie 1-1.5 grade tougher)for most years. If the populations are large enough (which I think they are for ICCS and PCGS, marginal for NGC) and you assume the submission to the three services are of roughly equal quality then the average ICCS MS or PL dollar is under-graded by 1-1.5 units compared to the major American services.

Is the ICCS grade bias? I've heard some wonderful comments about Brian and some really awful comments also. I don't know which are true. I worry that the people offering praise always struck me as frightened rather than admiring. But in any event....this (one grader "god" system) would never be tolerated anywhere else I know of besides Canada. It leaves open even to question even the most honest man.

WOW, this is a no brainer! An MS-65 has 2 bag marks and an MS-66 has only one!

Glenn

The reality with coins is that they do not get bag marks or wear in discrete grades. There is a smooth transition from no wear/bagmarks to heavy wear/bag marks. So, many coins will easily bounce between two grades such as a grade of MS64 or MS65. This is why I would like to see a sub-grade assigned to each side of a coin, and to assign sub-grades in 1/2 increments. That way, if one side is MS65 and the other is MS64.5, the total grade for the coin is MS64.75. The final grade listed for the coin on the holder would be MS64, and in finer print/font, the grade would be listed as MS64.75. This would significantly put to rest this argument of "is it an MS64 or is it MS65". A coin like this would probably trade as a gem MS64 coin, and if it has exceptional luster, then possibly an Ultra Gem coin (which would price it at an MS65 coin). Many collectors are essentially doing this themselves in the market, and this is why you see such a spread in prices within the same grade. Now if collectors can do this, why can't TPG services do the same?

IMO, the obverse should carry most of the grade weight. It's fine to describe a coin as VF/EF, but if the obverse is VF, it's a VF coin. Unless the reverse is way out of line with the obverse, it shouldn't factor into the grade much. I believe in the lowest common denominator, not a net grade.

I also don't think TPG's need to quantify micro-grades between MS-64 and MS-65, for example. Part of the art of what we do is selecting the best coin, even when coins are assigned identical grades. The market already does this, so why complicate things by getting TPG's even more involved?

HHB your posts confuse me. Like a kid that had a tub of ice cream and and a bunch of chocolate bars, you're all over the place.