When buying US Mint proof coins, what is the most common grading?

March 18, 2010 · Posted in Silver Updates · 1 Comment

Say I want to buy a Golden or Silver Eagle, ordered straight from the US Mint's website. What is the likelyhood that the coin will be PR-69 or PR-70 ???

Do I need to buy "First Strike" coins to guarantee this kind of grading? I'd be very disappointed if I spent that much on a collectible, and it turned out to only be PR-65.
Upon a little more research, I found out that NGC listed a census of all the coins they have graded. It appears that a proof coin, graded below PR69 is pretty rare (maybe 1 out of a thousand).

http://www.ngccoin.com/poplookup/

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