<https://boards.ngccoin.com/topic/425649-buy-the-coin-not-the-holder/>
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"Hi,\n \n\n\n\tI'm fairly new to all this, at least compared to most of you. \n \n\n\n\tI now have reached the point in the evolution of my collections that I buy few coins, but they're all expensive (and certified).\n \n\n\n\tI have read here the advice, \"Buy the coin, not the holder,\" meaning don't blindly follow the grade, even from NGC or PCGS.\n \n\n\n\tThe latest coin I've been stalking for the last couple of months has been a 1942/41-D Mercury dime.  I only felt comfortable with the expected price of an EF45, not a higher grade.  \n\tI could not find an example at that grade, so I widened the search to VF35 - AU55.   \n\tI found an ICG EF40 that I didn't like.  I found a couple of VF35 slabs that I thought were fairly graded, but which lacked the visual appeal I want out of a die-error coin on which I'm spending that kind of money.\n \n\n\n\tI found an AU50 at a reputable website, and asked for photos.  I was pretty surprised by the coin; what I would have called an EF40 (at best), was in an NGC slab graded AU50, and priced like it.  As a data point, I bought a 1942/41 (plain)Mercury dime a few months ago, in NGC EF40, and I would have happily bought such a coin for this one (at a price appropriate for that grade); but my examination concluded that the AU50 was more worn than my EF40.  \n\tIn the meantime, I had found an NGC AU55 at another site from which I have purchased a number of coins, that is pristine, at least as nice as I would expect from that grade, and reasonably priced.  So I bought the AU55.  \n\tThose two coins (the AU50 and the AU55) were separated (even looking at both sides of the coins) by far more that 5 grading points, in my opinion, and yet both were NGC-graded slabs.  \n\tI am really surprised that there could be such variance, but it certainly underscores the advice to buy the coin, not the container!\n \n\n\n\tMark\n \n"
<https://boards.ngccoin.com/topic/425649-buy-the-coin-not-the-holder/>