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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 2297374, member: 112&quot;]1 - nope, never have</p><p>2 - If you mean graders who work for the TPGs, yeah, many times. Even helped teach a few of them how to grade.</p><p>3 - nope, never attended a single one. But they (the ANA) has been known to use some of my explanations and illustrations in their seminars.</p><p>4 - Bite your tongue ! Good lord man, I&#039;ve spent years talking and writing about how bad it is. But I readily admit how important it is for folks to learn just how the TPGs do grade coins and what they base their grading upon. And because of that I always recommend anyone who wants to learn how they grade, buy their book.</p><p><br /></p><p>As for your comments about luster, when talking numismatics the mere reflection of light is hardly the same thing as luster. Coins that have no luster whatsoever still reflect light. You know that and I know that. But there is apparently something you do not know, but don&#039;t feel bad, there are plenty of others who don&#039;t, or didn&#039;t, know it either. What am I talking about ? This - </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Oh but it does. That is exactly what gives a coin its luster.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>This point has come up several times in the past - die wear, the lines eaten into the the face of a die as a result of the metal flowing across them is not what creates luster. Nor is it what creates cartwheel luster, though there are many who believe that to be the case. Coins struck on brand new dies have cartwheel luster. But yes, I do agree that die wear affects the luster, changes it. In fact it degrades the luster because die wear creates uneven, unequal surfaces on the coins. And the best luster, the highest quality of luster, is produced by even, equal surfaces. As a matter of fact the coins with the best, the highest quality of cartwheel luster, are Proof coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now as I said this point has come up several times in the past, it is a common belief. And some of the so called knowledgeable posters on this forum, well to be nice I&#039;ll just say that they vehemently disagreed with me. They argued that the best luster was found on coins with die wear. </p><p><br /></p><p>To settle the argument they took the idea to the PCGS forum and discussed it there. Suffice it to say they found out I was right and they were wrong when the &quot;experts&quot; weighed in.</p><p><br /></p><p>I think you&#039;ll find that there isn&#039;t much that can be discussed about coins that hasn&#039;t already been discussed here many, many times. And if you read many posts here you&#039;ll also find that there are those who disagree with me on several things. But you&#039;ll also find out that eventually they often find out that I was right to begin with. Other times they&#039;ll still disagree with their dying breath.</p><p><br /></p><p>But I&#039;m OK with that, I learned long, long ago that people will only believe what they want to believe, regardless of what the truth is. But those with an open mind - they can learn <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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