Falling short of MS-70

I had an interesting email this morning from a fellow who decided to perform a test.

Put simply, the test was to see if anyone can grade MS-70 coins with consistency.

This is what he wrote:

“I decided to do a test that cost me just short of $200, but it proved a point.

I purchased six MS-70 coins for just under $100 from the three grading services I had dealt with in the past. I carefully broke them out of their slabs and sent two each of their own graded coins back for grading.

“None of the coins came back as MS-70.

“Two came back MS-69, three came back MS-68 and one MS-67.”

That's his story. Naturally, he was upset and disillusioned.

What do you think?

Buzz blogger Dave Harper is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."