Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;TubeRider, post: 2456105, member: 76481&quot;]Summer Seminar is absolutely, positively THE place to be!!&nbsp; Two years ago I took Grading US Coins part 1, this year I took Grading US Coins part 2. The instructors,</p><p>John Schuch (NGC) Steve Feltner (professional numismatist, and former grader,</p><p>Professional Coin Grading Service; and David McCarthy (gold coin specialist and senior numismatist at Kagin’s) were amazing!&nbsp; They explained everything, and are totally accessible.&nbsp; With John and Steve being from two different grading services and David a high end dealer from Kagin&#039;s (David did all the conservation for and was the front man with the Saddle Ridge Hoard) they don&#039;t always agree on grades and the banter between them is hilarious.&nbsp; They have instructed together at Summer Seminar for five or so years.&nbsp; The class is so good there are students in there for their 2nd, 3rd and 4th time.&nbsp; The instructors take a week off and volunteer their time because of their true love of numismatics.</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; You want to sit down and have breakfast, lunch or dinner with Ken Bressett, just go sit down at his table.&nbsp; I hung out at the Luner Lounge with PCGS co-founder John Dannreuther for hours.&nbsp; Spent three hours with two top coin guys in an informal &#039;Bull Session&quot; on &#039;So You Want To be a Coin Dealer&#039;.&nbsp; One of them high up in the corporate world of coins and the other an extremely successful independent and one of the top graders out there (2nd in PCGS World Series of Grading).&nbsp; They answered any and all questions the group had, the session was slotted for one hour and we, the group, were the ones that finally let these guys go three hours later at 11:30 at night, they would have stayed as long as we wanted them to.</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; First night, a guy sits down at our dinner table, probably 4 guys there.&nbsp; As we talk he sees the excitement I have for coins, ends up he is one of the very first PCGS graders and an instructor for both weeks at the Summer Seminar.&nbsp; After everyone else left the table to go to opening ceremonies we stayed and talked, he cared more about my interest in coins then being introduced as an instructor at the opening ceremonies.&nbsp; He then invited me up to his room were he pulled out boxes of slabbed Morgan&#039;s and Peace dollars, all beautiful (in my eyes) PCGS and NGC MS 65&#039;s.&nbsp; As I grabbed each coin he would ask &quot;What&#039;s wrong with that coin?&quot;</p><p>Even though they were all in 65 holders there was a problem. Sometimes it would take 5 minutes for me to find the problem that could only be seen from one deeply tilted angle; coins been thumbed, baking soda&#039;d, over dipped, a spot has been removed, a fresh hairline across the cheek that you cannot see for several minutes then you hit the angle just right and a bright fresh scratch screams at you from a nice originally toned coin.&nbsp; As a former professional grader his reason for the bright fresh scratch was that it happened from handling at the grading service.&nbsp; This went on for hours!&nbsp; He then pulled out stuff, most of which I had never seen.&nbsp; As I examined each piece with my mouth hanging open the words most often out of his mouth were, &#039;That&#039;s the finest known example.&#039;&nbsp; I finally came to a piece I recognized and I said, &quot;Hey, I&#039;ve seen a piece like this on the cover of a Bower&#039;s book!&quot;&nbsp; He the said, &#039;That IS the coin you saw on the cover.&#039;</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; So that is what Summer Seminar is all about.&nbsp; Next year I plan on attending both weeks.&nbsp; I cannot recommend SS highly enough!![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in