pcgs grading

[randiR]

i bought a ATB 5oz slabbed by pcgs. its graded as BU. curious, why not use
M62, M63, or whatever the numerical equivalent is?

[Mike Benveniste]

On 5/19/2011 7:29 PM, randiR wrote:

> i bought a ATB 5oz slabbed by pcgs. its graded as BU. curious, why not use
> M62, M63, or whatever the numerical equivalent is?

Two reasons I can see:

The primary distributors were not supposed to sell different grades of
coins at different prices, so there was no advantage to them of paying
for a numerical grade.

I don't have access to the agreement between PCGS and whoever had your
hockey pucks slabbed (presumably a primary distributor like A-Mark), but
my guess is that because PCGS doesn't have to honor a grading
guarantee on BU coins, the distributor may have been able to negotiate
a lower price. PCGS might have also agreed to the lower price in hopes
of "double dipping" if people sent the coins back for a numerical grade.

The coins I got from A-Mark are slabbed "Choice BU" and to my
uncalibrated eye range from MS67 up. I won't be paying for reslabbing,
nor will I slab any pucks I buy directly from the mint.

--
Mike Benveniste -- m...@murkyether.com (Clarification Required)
You don't have to sort of enhance reality. There is nothing
stranger than truth. -- Annie Leibovitz

[ste...@no.spam.sbcglobal.net]

On 20-May-2011, Mike Benveniste <m...@murkyether.com> wrote:

> The primary distributors were not supposed to sell different grades of
> coins at different prices, so there was no advantage to them of paying
> for a numerical grade.
>
> I don't have access to the agreement between PCGS and whoever had your
> hockey pucks slabbed (presumably a primary distributor like A-Mark), but
> my guess is that because PCGS doesn't have to honor a grading
> guarantee on BU coins, the distributor may have been able to negotiate
> a lower price. PCGS might have also agreed to the lower price in hopes
> of "double dipping" if people sent the coins back for a numerical grade.
>
> The coins I got from A-Mark are slabbed "Choice BU" and to my
> uncalibrated eye range from MS67 up. I won't be paying for reslabbing,
> nor will I slab any pucks I buy directly from the mint.

There were also ones graded MS-66-67-68-69. But how ? Where are the grading
standards for these ? I can just barely see BU. Have seen coins graded by
PCGS that were chopmarked also.