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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;zach24, post: 2103148, member: 29975&quot;]Beginning a coin collection and adopting the title &quot;numismatist&quot; is a perilous task for one without mentorship. Just getting to know what you like, what you can spend, and the best places to expand your collection is difficult enough, but there are even more skills required to truly enjoy this fine hobby. Perhaps the most difficult to learn for an amateur is the accurate grading of coins. Grading coins is an art, and it&#039;s one being left to professional corporations by many collectors. Should we continue this trend? I think not! The art of grading coins is imperative in this hobby and mastery or simply proficiency in this skill will set a dedicated numismatist apart from a simple hobbyist content with collecting slabs labeled with another beings opinion. We can liberate new and old collectors alike from the tyrannical fetters of professionally graded coins if we invested resources into an interactive online course designed to teach first, the basics of coin grading, and then hone those skills through further development.</p><p>An online course would be very easy to build and could be based off of the simple model found in the American Numismatic Association Grading Standards reference book that every numismatist probably has on his or her shelf. The only problem with this resource is that it lacks interactivity and fails to make comparisons between ANA standards and actual received grades for coins graded by companies like PCGS or NGC. The online course would include picture based quizzes where the student would assign grades to coins, the course would then offer a &quot;true&quot; grade along with an explanation based upon strict standards outlined within the course. So this course would act very similarly to grading standards book resources, in that it would serve as an index, but the proficiency quizzes and individualized mentoring functions would differentiate it from a simple pictorial resource and augment the course. To stick with the theme of escaping the slab cycle, the course would also offer comparisons between received grades and true grades on professionally graded coins to highlight the inconsistent and sometimes erroneous grades that these companies handout.</p><p>This course would greatly help a newcomer to grow in the hobby and would break the trend of buying coins not based on the COIN but instead based on the assigned GRADE. After all, the hobby isn&#039;t about plastic slabs, it is about coins. This course would also allow graduates to cherry pick the perfect coins based on their own knowledge of grading instead of paying ridiculous premiums for a corporate seal of approval. This course is needed now more than ever. Don&#039;t let another coin become encased in a plastic tomb with a phony numeric grave marker.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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