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Message:: [QUOTE="Hobo, post: 324399, member: 11521"]Let's see if I understand your position, Troodon. All we as collectors need to do is to become as good at authenticating and grading coins as professional TPGs. That is much easier said than done.  To become truly good at coin grading and authentication one needs a lot of training and needs to grade many, many, many coins. An extensive reference library is needed for variety attribution and authentication. All this is a tall order for a novice or a casual collector.   You may change your tune if you buy a really, really good counterfeit or altered coin. I have seen some extremely deceptive counterfeit and altered coins. In the Counterfeit Detection course offered by the ANA we were allowed to inspect the largest collection of counterfeit and altered coins in the US. (This collection is part of the ANA collection.) Some of these coins are nearly impossible to detect if you don't know exactly what to look for. Do you feel comfortable enough with your skills to authenticate a $10,000 1911-D $2 1/2 Indian? I don't. And I have taken the class. I think paying a good TPG $50 to authenticate (and grade) and guarantee their findings is cheap insurance for a coin such as this. Are your grading skills good enough to distinguish between EF-45 and AU-50 on a 1903-S Morgan dollar? (There is no pressure to get the grade right. CoinValues lists the coin at $400 in EF-40 and $2200 in AU-50.)[/QUOTE]