Here is another lovely example of how certain American grading companies grade the best 90% of a note, not the ugliest 10%.
We are familiar with the concept of net grading, where a note looks like a higher technical grade, but because of problems, its grade is rounded down, thus given a "net grade". But does the concept work the same way when assessing a note to be an "apparent grade"? In the example above, is the grader bringing the assessed grade DOWN from what it would be without the problems? Or are they saying their grade is optimistic, meaning it should be treated as something LESS than an ordinary Fine-12?
I'm going to be blunt and say this note looks like a sub-par VG, and that there's not enough brandy on the planet that would get me to accept this could be technically VF before the damage brings the grade down. The damage is not exceptional or incidental (IMO)... it is the result of lots of circulation, and if a note's condition is not correlated to how circulated it is, then there is absolutely no apparent basis for how some graders arrive at a grade.
