New ways to do things

Modern collectors have some new problems that collectors of the past did not have to face.

As an example, I received an email this morning that exemplifies one of them.

“I have a graded coin by (commercial third-party grading service) that is clearly a better grade than they have graded this coin. I have shown this coin to six other dealers and a host of other collectors. They all agree without a doubt that it is undergraded.

“I intend to send it back into (another commercial third-party grading service) to be graded. My question is should I leave it in the (first grading service’s) case or break it out?

“Because I want them to grade it fairly and not be influenced by the other grader.”

In the old days, if you didn’t like a grade assigned to a coin by another dealer or collector, you took it out of their 2x2 holder, put it in your 2x2 holder and marked it as what you wanted

If you were right about the grade, it would sell. If you were wrong, it wouldn’t.

Haggling involved price rather than grade.

Some dealers took it so far as not to grade coins at all but to simply assign prices.

Nowadays were are much more focused on a coin’s grade because of the slab the coin comes in.

How did I respond to the email?

I did so this way:

“Have you asked (the first commercial grading service) to take a look at it again through its service to reconsider a grade? I would think that would be a good first step. If you still do not like the result, then you could submit it to (the other grading service) for a crossover examination. They will only put it in the (new) slab if it is the same grade or higher than what you specify in the submission.

“I am assuming the price of the higher grade makes achieving it well worth the expense of resubmissions.”

As I write this, the sender of the email responded to my response by saying he did not know the grading service would look at its graded coins again to reconsider the grade.

We are all still learning about the new ways of doing things, aren't we?

Buzz blogger Dave Harper is winner of the 2013 Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."