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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Insider, post: 24881888, member: 24314&quot;]Experience/Time in is the best way to learn with the right info.&nbsp; Shoot for 10,000 hours as they say. I&#039;ve been involved with some major dealers who have ONE YEAR OF EXPERIENCE for fifty years.&nbsp; Get it?&nbsp; As for magnification. There are some numismatists who can see more on a coin with their naked eye or a 5X hand lens than a rookie with his 100X toy!&nbsp;&nbsp; What a scope does is let you see more.&nbsp; The florescent light lets you see a coin&#039;s surface without glare.&nbsp; It is the best light to see AU/MS for anyone.&nbsp; Beginners should use incandescent light to see hairlines and marks the easiest.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b>If I said that, it was a <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie30" alt=":bucktooth:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> mistake. I never did 10-20 coins a day.&nbsp; No company would stay in business!</b> Furthermore, it takes just a few seconds to pop a coin under the scope to look for defects, altered surfaces, and damage.&nbsp;&nbsp; I&#039;m not blasting you, but the general public has absolutely no idea what goes on in a grading room or the time a grader spends on a particular coin because they are not there.&nbsp; It also depends on the coin.&nbsp; Sometimes it takes several minutes to look up the correct KM# for a foreign coin I&#039;ve never seen but that is something extra ICG does although it&#039;s not economical for the company.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>In my experience, <b>most coins can be authenticated in the blink of an eye </b>by a knowledgeable collector.&nbsp; Many coins (especially MS) can also be graded in the blink of an eye by a knowledgeable grader and then the grade must be confirmed in a few seconds more.&nbsp; It is easy to hit the adjectival grade in the blink of an eye (Fine, Very Fine, etc.) for a circulated coin but then you must break that down to a number.&nbsp; The time spent on a coin depends on the coin.&nbsp; As an experiment just now, I graded a 1972 DD cent MS-65 Red in fourteen seconds from the time I touched the flip. About five seconds of that was getting the coin ready to grade with my 7X hand lens and putting it back into the flip.&nbsp; Then it takes about three seconds to type the info into the computer.&nbsp; Eight to twelve seconds seems fast but count it out.&nbsp; I would bet that if you took the time to count the number of coins any grader did in a day and the time it took, the average per coin would be higher than I should attempt to guess and my experiment just now.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>What I may have been trying to say is I&#039;ve had the luxury no to work in a sweat mill and I can spend as much time as I wish on each coin so I&#039;ll e</p><p>leave it like that.&nbsp; Additionally, fakes have become so good that many coins that were once authenticated in about 10 seconds under the scope now are taking many minutes.&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /><img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie3" alt=":(" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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