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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 883672, member: 112&quot;]There are multiple problems with photos. First of all, I think everyone here will agree that photos do not always show what is there. A slight tilt of the camera this way or that, a small change in the lighting or even the angle of lighting, a change in the white balance - all of these things amke each picture look entirely different.</p><p><br /></p><p>Then there is what I consider the bigger problem with photos. You can have 5 or even 10 coins all graded exactly the same. But each one of those coins will have differences, sometimes major differences, from each of the other. </p><p><br /></p><p>With circs, this one may have a bit more wear here than than there. That one may have a nicer reverse while this one has a nicer obverse. This one may have bit more remaining luster than that one. Same with MS examples, this one has fewer contact marks than that one. This one has fewer marks but a major mark in a prime focal area. This one has better eye appeal, that one better luster. But yet every coin of the group is graded the same and graded correctly.</p><p><br /></p><p>The list could go on forever, but when using photos as your basis for standards - you only have 1 photo ! So how do you compare these 9 coins that you are trying to grade to that 1 coin in the photo ? You can&#039;t. And that is the problem.</p><p><br /></p><p>It is also the problem with trying to learn to grade by looking at previously graded coins because you have the exact same issues. </p><p><br /></p><p>Photos of coins can only be used as an eaxample of what 1 particular coin might look like in a given grade. That does you absolutely no good when trying to compare multiple other coins to that 1 coin. It can&#039;t be done because each individual coin is different - but yet may be exactly the same grade as another.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is why you need written descriptions of grading standards, and the more written descriptions you have the better chance you have of getting a handle on what a coin of a given grade should look like,<u>and</u> the experience that can only be gained by looking at tens of thousands of coins in person.</p><p><br /></p><p>Yes photos of coins are an aid to learning to grade. But they can by no means be the only aid or even the primary aid. If anything, on the ladder of importance for all grading aids, coin photos are at the very bottom of the ladder.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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