I been looking at coins fifty years. I see a nice coin and quite literally my eyes glaze over in awe of the beauty of the piece. There is a GTG thread with a beautiful SLQ, one of my favorite coins. I did not see a flaw until it was pointed out to me. And I thought I had studied the coin. I saw something @physics-fan3.14 wrote either in a thread or maybe in his book, I cannot recall about training your eyes to see a coin differently. In these times where a minor flaw can mean the difference in big bucks, I need to personally work on this skill. It is my biggest weakness in this hobby..... How do you train yourself to look objectively at a coin rather than emotionally?
The more you are "in awe of the beauty of the piece" the more likely you'll overlook stuff because your mind is creating a bias on liking it.
Correct. That is exactly what struck my on the SLQ I was talking about. How do you turn that part of your brain off when you inspect a coin? Particularly one that is an emotional favorite? It’s like asking me to look at the sand while I am at the beach!
The same question across many hobbies/professions. How do top end car show judges become so finicky on finding extremely minor stuff in order to judge and award cars ? Even though you know they love looking at the cars all day long. You have to learn to put aside your bias in order to "judge" something. Write a checklist to search for things in a particular order to create a "search routine". This will focus your mind .. hopefully. Of course, if your eyeballs are slightly off like mine it may not matter until someone else identifies it for you.
IMO it is an extremely slippery slope one treads when trying to think/view with your head as opposed to your heart. What do I mean by that? When most of us started in this great hobby of coin collecting we did so with admiration. Admiration of the beauty of certain coins. Admiration of the intricate design features. The preservation of the condition of sometimes centuries old pieces of sculpted metal. From my perspective these are all attributes of a heartfelt love affair with round metal disks. Fast forward many decades. Our passion for coin collecting may have ebbed and flowed over those years. What most likely hasn't changed is the appreciation of the beauty and history these coins possess. Trying to recondition our thought process to entertain a new, more objective view of the coins of our affection borders on taking our passion and love for the hobby and turning it into a business venture. For many in the hobby this is their calling. Without those people the rest of us collectors would be left out in a lurch. However, those of us who still participate with the love for the hobby this transition could take some of the enjoyment out of it. I recognize the intelligent, prudent and responsible approach is to view every coin with a bit of skeptical hesitation. I do that. What I'm saying is that all the nefarious and criminally intent hawkers out there have given me pause in my love for this hobby. It has become laborious and tiresome at times trying to pick up minute, almost imperceptible details that will surely tarnish the enjoyment of the hobby I've loved for almost my entire life. Enjoy your hobby @Randy Abercrombie Balance is key.
Simplistic answer is to do whatever it normally takes for you to set aside emotions from any decision making process. If you look at enough really nice coins, then you can desensitize yourself to the emotional triggers of looking at them. The downside of that is that the emotional triggers are something that we enjoy in this hobby. Another trick to looking more objectively is to look at the coin upside-down when grading, right side up when admiring. That might give visual cues to your brain that will help.
Well personally, I just blame it all on my old eyes and old brain. Then I just flow with the river, Lol
Fortunately or unfortunately, we all can see the same exact thing, hear the same exact thing or read the same exact thing and walk away with multiple opinions. Yes, bias and subjectivity is a major factor. So I guess.............that's why this forum exists.
I just have to wonder what this hobby is becoming for future generations when the majority of the people, here, want only to know if they have a "doubled ear" and how much is it worth. Chris
What I do is follow a process. Note that none of these steps are “admire the coin.” That way I can hold a 5-7 digit coin without partiality (which I have done several times). 1. Observe the luster. Is it all there? Is it broken? If so, how much is left? Is it natural luster? Is it disturbed by hairlines or other issues? Is it bold and brilliant? Is it soft or subdued? 2. Observe surface preservation. Rotate it under a light and catch all post-striking marks. The include bagmarks, hairlines, scratches, etc. 3. If the luster is broken from wear, observe the amount of detail/luster left and the strike characteristics to arrive at an appropriate grade. If there is no trace of luster left due to wear, to max it can grade is 45. Step 1 should take 1-3 seconds on each side. Step 2/3 should take a total of 2-5 seconds on each side. There’s no time to get caught up in the coin. Once this is done, you have your objective judgment and can admire the coin all you want. This works as well.
In pilot training, students are given this advice: Follow these steps when something is out of the ordinary: 1. Fly the plane 2. Fly the plane 3. Fly the plane In other words, don’t let your emotions affect your judgement. This mentality can be applied for coin grading: 1. Grade the coin 2. Grade the coin 3. Grade the coin Don’t let your emotions influence your grade decision. This is where market grading fails.
So the initial assessment should be brief enough to avoid an emotional attachment is what I think I am taking from this.
Years ago in a class I was taking, the teacher said that he wanted to teach us how to forge signatures, as to learn that would help spot forgeries. The trick was to turn the signature upside down, then copy it. Try it. Works pretty well. So I see how turning the coin upside down would help evaluate it. Also, concentrating on just little sections of the coin and saving the full view to the end might help. Even cut a small hole in a piece of paper where it forces you to see only a small section might train you for this.
This is such good advice I've coped it to my computer for reference. Later I will print it out to take with me whenever I go shopping for coins.
For me, I find I look at a coin more objectively if I think about the cost. Is the coin worth it? And it makes me look at the coin closer. Doesn't always work, but I try. And I'm still working on being able to grade accurately.