Letters to the Editor - January 2024

Juliette Gordon Low a Deserving Quarter Honoree

The announcement of the honorees for the final American Women quarters to be released in 2025 hyped me up. The Juliette Gordon Low honor inclusion is what I was happy about because of my involvement in the Deaf topic in numismatics. Many people are not aware that she has a disability that was not mentioned in the announcements.

As excerpted from a Gallaudet University (the world’s premier university for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing students) website: “Most people do not know that Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts of America, was deaf. She began to lose her hearing when she was 17 and became almost totally deaf in her adulthood.” Her hearing was exacerbated when a grain of rice went into her ear, and a surgical procedure to remove the rice damaged her hearing further.

Kenneth S. Rothschild, Burbank, Calif.

Grading Service Strength Depends on the Coin

In the Nov. 28, 2023 “Letters” edition, J. Galloway of Safford, Ariz., queried: “Why Isn’t ANACS Used By More Dealers?”

All third-party grading services have their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to grading. Some services are adept at grading gold coins and half dollars but miss the mark when it comes to grading quarters or dimes. Other services are terrible at grading large cents/small cents but are quite skilled when grading nickels and silver dollars, so it varies. Even after nearly four decades of third-party grading, consistency continues to be lacking, or collectors and dealers would not be cracking coins out of their respective holders and resubmitting them for possible upgrades.

As an example, I acquired three rather scarce proof error Lincoln cents of the same date that were graded by the Professional Coin Grading Services (PCGS). Two of them were graded PR-68 RD DMC (Deep Mirror Cameo), and one was graded PR-67 RD DMC. When comparing the three coins simultaneously, I determined the “67” coin was superior to the two “68s.” I subsequently sold the two latter coins, cracked out the “67,” which I resubmitted to PCGS, and it came back PR-69 RD DMC, which increased its value by at least a thousand dollars!

The reason PCGS is considered to be more popular than the other services is that coins graded by them generally sell at higher price levels in the marketplace. Thus, acquiring additional monetary profit is a strong motivational factor for one to continually submit their coins to that particular grading service.

In the case of J. Gallowaay opining that ANACS’ grading “is as good ... sometimes better” than Professional Coin Grading Services and Numismatic Guaranty Company, I offer this incident. A want-list client asked that I find him a particularly rare Seated Liberty Carson City silver dollar in Mint State (PCGS graded). It had to look “just right,” so after nearly a year of searching, I came across a beauty in an ANACS MS-60 holder. After extensively scrutinizing the coin, I felt it had been under-graded. Excitedly, I called my client with the good news, but he became quite dismayed to learn the coin was graded by ANACS. He insisted: “If ANACS graded it MS-60, it’s probably an AU-55 at best.” I told him he had to see the coin for himself and that I felt it should have been graded higher. Thus, I shipped it to him on approval, and he soon phoned to tell me he was going to buy it. He, too, felt the coin had been under-graded.

Fast-forward 10 months, my client phoned to say he had submitted the coin to PCGS and it was graded MS-62! In his opinion, he felt it could have even graded “MS-63” on any given day. The value of the coin increased $8,000 above his purchase price!

Some readers will wonder why I hadn’t bought the coin myself and cracked it for an upgrade if I felt so sure of it being under-graded. I could have, but sometimes, proverbially, it pays to leave some money on the table and to allow a client to reap an unexpected financial windfall, which provides a win-win situation for all who are involved. In this case, my client was ecstatically elated (to say the least), and his business with me has continued for over three decades.

Sam Lukes, Visalia, Calif.