Outstanding Prooflike Worlds' Columbian Medal--HK231 & Outstanding! Please Read

This medal has significant cameo; if you look especially at the Coat of Arms on the reverse the "frosting" is pretty darned strong. When 3rd party grading first began, I simply deferred and assumed that these folks know a whole lot more than I do about grading. But as the years--the decades--rolled by and I examined tens of thousands of coins and medals as a seller and a collector before that, my automatic approval of the grading process became a tad more concerned.

I absolutely still believe that NGC, PCGS and ANACS graders know far more than I or anyone else; but they're not perfect. I've voiced my concerns on occasion. Color and eye appeal doesn't matter, we're told; I recently saw a downright black silver coin. It looked to me like it was covered by volcanic ash thick enough to obscure most of the detail and the date. It epitomized that view about eye appeal.

The coin was given a gem high grade. I look at the occasional medal or coin I have in my inventory that is marked "environmental damage" on the slab. I see dramatic contradictions in this, and how many collectors don't care about eye appeal? Why is prooflike appearance so valuable when eye appeal doesn't count?

And of course that leads me to ask why this medal is an MS62. It seems clearly better than that. I should attend an ANA grading seminar I suppose to answer these questions. Maybe the appearance of the coin/medal should be reconsidered and so should the definition of "environmental damage".

After this WCE sale is complete I will be finishing and posting an article on this exact topic., If you are not already a subscriber (totally free) or occasional reader, please consider signing up to receive automatic notifications when new material is posted.

So, to this MS62 coin that I agree it is prooflikek, and also a cameo (isn't that also a definition of visual appeal?) a designation which it doesn't hold. More important, does this look like an MS62 to you? Grades of MS60-61-62 have become quite negative in the minds of many collectors.

That is at least a little unfair. Most customers I deal with look at MS63 (or Proof 63) as generally the lowest grade they want to purchase for all these reasons. I seldom purchase coins less than MS63 for the same reaons, plus my customers have gotten used to receiving gem coins and medals from me over the years. I didn't hesitate to acquire this medal: It looks great, it definitely is prooflike and I believe it should be graded higher. But that becomes semantics. I am not going to pull it out of the slab and offer it as the gem I think it is.

And finally, it is nice to be able to voice my opinion clerly where as no one can on ebay. So they have a bit of a "gag order" on the site as well as the devotion to which they adhere--that no seller can breath a word about selling offsite.

And for all my whining about grading and ebay's rules, I probably should complain about fees, too; but I sell on ebay by choice and I'm actually jmore annoyed by the above points even more than paying 13+% of my gross revenue for the right to list and put my items in front of an admittedly mammoth audience.

Check out the medal carefully, consider my annoyances (and me being annoying with writing so much here) and please do consider visiting the historybankjournal.