I need some help. Trying to figure out which grading book would be best. I read somewhere that Photograde was good. I found 5 different Photograde books on ebay. How do I know which one would be best? I need to learn enough about grading to protect myself when buying coins. Sonny
Yes it has pictures, but like all grading books the pictures suck. You will find it far easier to use the descriptions and your grading will be more accurate than they ever will going by pictures.
It has pictures of every coin and grade , is probably used by more people and has other general information on grading . rzage
ANA is great, but I don't find it useful for Mint State and Proof coins. In addition to ANA, I like "Grading US Coins" by Jim Halperin for MS coins. Personally, I don't care for Photograde. I remember when it first came out; it made quite a splash ! It replaced the old Brown & Dunn grading guide. I bet that thing is a collector's item right now.
Thanks people. I guess I will buy the A.N.A book. I hope its not true , what they say about teaching old dogs new tricks.
nam the true wisdom is to buy all the grading books. Read all of them, study all of them - but you have to go beyond the books. You have to look at coins, thousands and thousands of coins. And all the while you are looking at the coin be applying all of the things you have gotten out of the books. And yes, you can teach old dogs
I'm not really sure why grading books can't include good photos. Maybe it just costs too much. There would seem to be a market for a really good photo book. I like and use both Photograde and the ANA guide. It helps to have two sources because many grading situations just aren't as clear-cut as a single source might lead you to believe.
I don't know why there are no grading books with good pics either. But there aren't. Thats why I think the ANA book is better. Because you're pretty much going by the descriptions either way, and Photograde doesn't cover unc coins. I have, and use, both though.
I think part of reason there are no good pics in grading books is really quite simple. It's because they would have to print several pictures of each coin in each grade to have truly representative examples. Think about it, there just so many different reasons as to why a given coin is assigned any given grade. In some cases it can be lack of luster, in others it can be too many marks, in others it can be slight wear vs a weak strike. And then for each picture they would have to explain why this particular coin was XF for this reason or that reason. One picture is just not capable doing this. But a verbal description of generalized charcateristics for a given grade, coupled with experience & unserstanding of the grading process - is.
There is a new book, " Grading Coins by Photograph".....I have not seen it, but might be worth a try, it focus's on the internet and the new decade of internet pictures
I bought the book (by Bowers) recently, and it is useful, with a lot of information beyond grading.Photos are decent. The ANA guide is my preference, because for the most part it has objective descriptions for the different grade levels, rather than always saying "further wear is seen" as one goes down the scale. I have heard that the early editions of Photograde have much better pictures, and the grading is a bit more conservative than in later issues. The PCGS guide has been of no help to me at all in grading coins, but it has other useful parts. In sum, I'd recommend the ANA Grading book, an early Photograde, and the Bowers book, and then proceed as recommended by GDJMSP above.
Hello nam71 and welcome to the forum. By the way thanks for the PM it is always nice to have a fellow AF brother on the forum. Doug is right get as many books on grading as you can and read them all. Some of them read like T.O. and have pictures like them but there are a few good one out there. One of the better one you can get for free if you join Heritage Auction Site. When you join they will send you How to Grade U.S. Coins by James L. Halperin but you have to ask for it.
