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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;SuperDave, post: 2554616, member: 1892&quot;]First, grab the Jason Poe book SilverMike mentioned. You&#039;ll find the Amazon link to buy it in physics-fan3.14&#039;s post right above mine&nbsp; - it&#039;s in his signature underneath what he posted. <b>He&#039;s</b> Jason Poe, and that should give you an idea of just_how_much expertise is available to you in forums like this. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Grading is kind of an intimidating process at first, and the <b>only</b> way to learn it is via iteration. You have to look at a <i>lot</i> of coins before it becomes comfortable for you. The problem is, coins don&#039;t necessarily wear in identical patterns, and it&#039;s always a subjective call as to how much wear (or how many marks on a Mint State coin) you see. The same features don&#039;t always wear evenly on every example. A lesser strike can look like wear as well. It&#039;s....complicated. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Another complication is the sort of deceptive nature of online imagery, especially when it comes to Mint State coins. You can steepen your learning curve a lot by leveraging online databases of coin images for grading; PCGS has a particularly nice one here:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.pcgs.com/photograde/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.pcgs.com/photograde/" rel="nofollow">http://www.pcgs.com/photograde/</a></p><p><br /></p><p>The images are a tad smaller than I like, but quite clear. Also, become a member of Heritage Auctions - ha.com (no financial information required to join) - and access their <i>huge</i> database of extremely high resolution images of coins they&#039;ve sold. It currently amounts to almost two million US coins and a quarter of a million World coins. PCGS Coin Facts (<a href="http://www.pcgscoinfacts.com/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.pcgscoinfacts.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.pcgscoinfacts.com/</a>) is chock full of information on US coinage, including huge images of the high-grade examples of each featured coin, including varieties in many cases.</p><p><br /></p><p>Fair warning: The better the image, the more deceptive it will probably be. A collector who is experienced at grading in-hand will <i>consistently</i> undergrade digital imagery during their learning process, because digital cameras exaggerate marks/features which aren&#039;t as important to grade in the real world. It stands to reason - even a Morgan Dollar in-hand is still only an inch and a half across, but when I post one online it&#039;s....huge:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]549602[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>It stands to reason that you&#039;ll see things you wouldn&#039;t, holding it in your hand.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The most important tool for your learning process, though, is what&#039;s in front of you here. There are experts in every aspect of the hobby posting in online communities, ready to lend you their expertise and opinions. We do a bazillion &quot;Guess the Grade (GTG)&quot; threads here where you can sharpen grading skills and compare your opinions to those of others.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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