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