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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;MIGuy, post: 7498261, member: 116145&quot;]I&#039;ve been collecting off and on for almost 40 years, in the last few years I&#039;ve become more serious and have been working to educate myself about &quot;grades&quot; and varieties, and &quot;details&quot; issues (cleaning, polishing, scratches, things that coin people consider damage - sometimes not so obvious to me).&nbsp; I recommend you get a good magnifying glass or two with LED lights built in - I got a set of two on Amazon with different magnification that I like for less than $20.&nbsp; I also bought an inexpensive digital magnifying device that plugs into my phone or laptop, but I mostly use the magnifiers.&nbsp; I am careful not to touch the surface of the coins (just the edges) and to keep my hands clean when handling same. </p><p><br /></p><p>I had a number of budget coins that were already graded by PCGS, NGC, ICG and ANACS - those are the 4 TPGs (Third Party Graders) that eBay allows to sell as &quot;graded&quot; coins, typically people consider PCGS the best, some people are snobs about it, but they are the market maker - if your coin is top notch and you want to sell it you want it in a PCGS slab to get the best price.&nbsp; Like you, I&#039;m not interested in selling, so I looked into it and found that ICG was the one I liked - it&#039;s easy to use, just fill out a submission form and send it in with the coins, 3 weeks later they are back in your hands in neat little graded slabs.&nbsp; They have a discount for Cointalk members of $10 per coin for Economy service (plus shipping and insurance both ways).&nbsp; I have made 3 submissions since last year and I&#039;m getting a much better eye for details.&nbsp; I&#039;ve had them grade some lower level coins and some much nicer ones.&nbsp; My focus has been on a Standing Liberty Quarter collection that my youngest son and me have been working on since he was in high school, but I also have sent them things like a Victoria crown and an 1864 two cent piece.&nbsp; I have 2x2 coin flips and Guardhouse boxes treated with anti-corrosive materials (the factory seconds are really cheap) from Wizard coin supply to hold my raw coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Distinguishing between an AU53 that has been lightly cleaned and is almost FH (Full Head - a good strike for SLQs) and an MS63 that does rate as FH isn&#039;t easy for me, but I&#039;m getting there, and having slabbed coins assessed by professional knowledgeable graders is a real help to my education.&nbsp; It also helps you to judge comparing different coins of the same year in the same state - you&#039;ll see a really nice VF in an NGC slab and one that isn&#039;t as nice in an ANACS slab, or vice versa, anyway, you start to get a better feel for these things.&nbsp; It&#039;s really fun and I hope you enjoy your journey.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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