I used to believe that PCGS grades coins rather conservative, but has seen a lot of questionable grading lately by PCGS.

Look at this one - http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=280200203027. I would say this is "no grade", because of planchet defect with max VF-35 grade.

Any comments?

In general, ALL grading companies are getting more liberal, even PCGS. In this particular case, without seeing the coin in person, it is hard to tell whether the spots on the coin are planchet defects or discolorations -- perhaps the result of an old cleaning?

In either case, I think XF-45 is probably a little too high. But the pictures are also pretty lousy, so I will refrain from trying to find an exact grade.

Technology of the time was not perfect. If the coin has a planchet defect, well that's because that is the way the coin was made.

Expecting a coin to be better than the way it was made is, in my opinion, unreasonable. The ms-70 moderns mentality is completely inappropriate for Imperial Russian coins.

Here's a coin that has a serious planchet defect:

It recently sold for 12,000 Euros (about $17,850 at time of sale) hammer price (plus another 15% with the juice).

Is the coin undesirable? Should it be sneered at because it is not perfect?

If PCGS refused to grade this coin because of the flaw then, in my opinion, that would say a lot more about the worth of PCGS's service than it would about the coin.

1862? Well, we have all seen a very nice speciment from 1839 recently, which was graded as PF65 or near. Let's not compare the coins from 18-th century and 19-th. It's a big difference.