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Message:: [QUOTE="900fine, post: 570892, member: 6036"]9am Thursday - A seminar entitled "Counterfeit Detection and Grading" taught by two guys with a combined 60+ years experience. The thrilling climax - the class brought coins to pass around. Every student took a shot at grading every coin. When done, we went coin by coin and compared grades to the expert's grades ! VERY cool game. Very HUMBLING game, I should say ! Actually, I did really well overall. Of the 23 coins, I matched the experts right on 11 times. I matched 'em within one grade one grade 5 times. Great... until we got to the last coin. #23. A Draped Bust large cent. I said "WOW ! Great detail in the hair... or most of it. A shallow depression in the cheek, but not unsightly. Strong reverse.  Sharpness is 45, a few bangs and a rim bump... I give this one 35. Great coin !" No. NOT great coin. That detail in the hair was TOOLED IN. No wonder parts of the hair looked so much better than other parts ! That depression in the cheek ? There had been a major gouge and some one buffed it out. It looked like Liberty was sucking on a Lemon Sour. It removed the gouge, all right. With all the subtlety of a blitzing middle linebacker. And I just zoomed right past it. OUCH. Humbling. But cheap tuition ! Classes here are free ! YAY !!! Lesson learned... DON'T GET COCKY. Stay awake. Speed grading is like speed chess. You can rip through this at lightning speed, but you'll lose valuable material. Take your time. Think it through. Then make your move. This here ya boy Ricky B - field correspondent at EAC 2009 sayin' OVAH and OUT ![/QUOTE]

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