Do you think professional graders have the pop report memorized (roughly speaking)?

MeantToBeSpent

Ie do you think they always know when they're giving out some new low pop coin or not? Or maybe just the finalizer has this responsibility? (or the ability to look pops up?). I was wondering also if on regrades if they look up recent auction results for the coin in question, and if a price way over guide on it would sway them towards the upgrade (ie basically the defn of "market" grading).

MarkFeld

“Always”?, of course not, but sometimes or often, yes.

It shouldn’t be any grader’s responsibility to know, as grading assessments and decisions should be objective and thus, independent of population data.

I’d be very surprised if auction results are checked for regrades - nor should they be.

BillJones

They might not know the pop report, but they definitely have known when the next notch up was going to increase the value significantly. At least they did when I was more active 20 years ago. Better date coins that really shot up in value with a minor increase in grade where more difficult to win a crack-out game, or at least were the source for B+ coins for that date.

I suppose the ideal situation would be if they had no idea what things were worth and only knew how to grade.

I was bit surprised when I plotted an 1853-C Gold Dollar in AU in front of a well-known grader. His comment was about a lamination that is on the reverse of the piece, and then he asked me if it was "a key date." It isn't in the Charlotte series, but anything from the Charlotte Mint is going to be important. The only possible exception would be an 1851-C Gold Dollar, which can be found in Mint State more than any other Charlotte coin. I suppose that a really low grade or damaged 1851-C Gold Dollar might not be of much importance.

Phil619

Really interesting question never really considered it.  Envision them going on quick execution routine grading coins meet days quota.

I don’t see how they could have it memorized but they might have it handy for reference off their computer or have experience with that issue / class to check pop having a hunch it’s low. 

However what about objectivity?

I believe there might be curiosity want to know especially if a mgr highly likely to be scrutinizing it.  I have no idea how graders are assigned (like by type of coin).  Based on their expertise in their area the grader might look at pop out of curiosity especially if could be low pop / high value coin.  I guess if he had doubts (borderline) would seek out a sr grader or mgr.

Or maybe not - this a question (above my knowledge of how grading rooms work) for somebody who is or was a grader.  I would wonder if there is some sr grader / mgr who would look over days grading report of coins graded looking at pops and maybe wanting review something of interest.  So if your the original grader you want to have all your ducks in a row.

MarkFeld

Phil619 said:

Really interesting question never really considered it.  Envision them going on quick execution routine grading coins meet days quota.

I don’t see how they could have it memorized but they might have it handy for reference off their computer or have experience with that issue / class to check pop having a hunch it’s low. 

However what about objectivity?

I believe there might be curiosity want to know especially if a mgr highly likely to be scrutinizing it.  I have no idea how graders are assigned (like by type of coin).  Based on their expertise in their area the grader might look at pop out of curiosity especially if could be low pop / high value coin.  I guess if he had doubts (borderline) would seek out a sr grader or mgr.

Or maybe not - this a question (above my knowledge of how grading rooms work) for somebody who is or was a grader.  I would wonder if there is some sr grader / mgr who would look over days grading report of coins graded looking at pops and maybe wanting review something of interest.  So if your the original grader you want to have all your ducks in a row.

I was a grader at NGC for 7 years (long ago) and don’t remember ever checking the population as part of grading any coins.

EarlyFederalCoinage

No.