I can guarantee you that the coatings on the older binos are not even close to being as good as the newer coatings. The grinding of the glass has really not improved that much over the years among the premium optics makers, and the glass, while better, is not incredibly better. But the coatings are much, much better than they used to be. In fact, that is the primary improvement in premium optics over the last 20 years. Also, many more binos are being fully multi-coated with the new coatings as opposed to most older binos only receiving the coatings on a few lens surfaces. Even over the last 5 to 10 years coatings technology has improved dramatically. The new Swarovski 8x30 SLC is very noticeably better than the older models, at least to my eyes. The same is true of other premium optical makers like Leica and Zeiss. The improved coatings on all lens surfaces is the main reason that companies like Vortex can begin to compete with the premium makers, with the newer high end Vortex binos being optically about as good as the premium binos of 10 years ago. Elknut knows that better than most since he is a Vortex dealer. I prefer my Swarovskis and Leicas, but I wouldn't be upset if I were relegated to hunting with the best Vortex binos.
Allan