<https://boards.ngccoin.com/topic/425649-buy-the-coin-not-the-holder/#comment-9779066>
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"I agree, as I said above; AU58, to me, is a nice value point, because the market (in my aesthetic viewpoint) overvalues the mere fact of being \"mint state,\" and undervalues eye appeal.  To me, that's not a bad thing, because I get to buy the coin I like better at a lower price.  Heck, the coin about which I started this thread is a perfect example.  It's a fairly rare coin, especially certified (the only way I would buy the coin, because it is often counterfeited or altered) in higher grades.  And the price increases exponentially above AU53 even into the very low mint state grades (an MS62--without full bands--costs about 3.5 times what an AU53 costs, and I think I got a very strong example of an AU55 at a price significantly below the NGC listed price for that coin at that grade).  So, when I found a beautiful coin, at the very high end of what I was wiling to pay, but one so nice it probably has better eye appeal than the vast majority of those few that exist in the next several higher grades even if I could find one, I bought it.  \n\tIn any event, it's not as if dealers are forcing that on collectors; coins are a classic non-essential good, and the buyers, in aggregate, decide how much a coin is worth (with a floor, of course, which is a function of the melt value of the coin--not a significant issue for a rare dime like it is with your Saint-Gaudens beauties).  If buyers as a group prefer low mint state to pristine AU, so be it (and, as I said, that really does work for me).\n \n\n\n\tMark\n \n"
<https://boards.ngccoin.com/topic/425649-buy-the-coin-not-the-holder/>