I am dedicated to learning how to grade better. I am reading photograde, right now. Anyother advice for improving my grading skills? Thanks and best to you all!
practice, practice, practice... handle lots of coins. Go to a show and see if you agree with the dealers grading.
Read all the "Guess the Grade" posts here, but just look at the pic first, decide what you'd grade it, then read the replies.
Start with a particular issue and learn as much as you can. RLM has a great series on "Guess the Grade", above 40 examples Lincolns. See what you can learn and ask questions. After you learn the first series well, the others will fall in also after about 2 or 3 decades Jim
Go to Heritage Auctions http://coins.ha.com/ and sign up for a free membership. Once a member, you will have access to their auction archives. Go to the archives and look at thousands of different coins in any grade you want. Kind of like photograde on steroids.
Go to the ANA summer seminar on grading. Everyone who went to the grading classes thought they were very helpful. g.
Read, study, memorize the basic details of the different grades, strikes, and general amount of luster and eye appeal. Study multiple coins of the same type so you can get a general idea.
PCGS's new photograde is good too because the pictures are in color. It's not so good on mint state stuff... but none of them are... but for circulated coins it's pretty handy. http://www.pcgs.com/Photograde/
When I got serious about wanting to grade I knew I needed practice. I studied Jefferson nickels hard, then went out and got a bag of them and started grading, putting the grades into grading piles. After a while I went back to my pile and self criticized, pointing out my errors to myself while referencing my grading book. There simply is no substitute for handling and grading thousands and thousands of coins for me. I like just getting coins from the bank for this, since you just deposit them back in, keeping any goodies! If I remember right, I found a 39d, a few war nickels, and a few errors for my trouble. Once you are good at that, then try it on better coins using the methods others have described here.
A couple of nice personalized threads by CT members on grading Morgan Dollars: EXHIBIT: The Morgan Dollar Exhibit - Grading The Morgan Dollar.
