Hitting the books at coin school

As some of you know I am presently at the ANA Summer Seminar at Colorado Springs, CO. I have been here for close to two weeks now, classes end in a few days.

Last year Hobo gave a detailed and very informative account of the event. I cannot do equal justice to everything I have experienced here, but will at least give a basic sketch.

The first week here I took a basic grading course to US coins. The instructors were former and present graders at PCGS and ANACS. Since I have never had 'instruction' at grading coins, I went ahead and did the first course of the series. I was not disappointed, as the classes were rapid and engaging, and involved grading plenty of US series that I do not collect and therefore do not know how to grade. In addition most coins were uncirculated, another area I know relatively little about. Most days we graded non-stop both morning and afternoon sessions, spending between 30-45 seconds per coin, then reviewing our results with the grades of the instructors and with the grades marked on the slabs (covered with stickers when we did the grading). Everything was on the table, from circulated merc dimes to $20 gold. I got plenty out of the course, and could do another just like it and get as much out of it again.

Also last week I went to a few different lectures on Mexican coinage, taught by a numismatist who is also a member of CT (Ricardo de Leon Tallavas). These talks were very well done and I got a great deal out of them.

This week I am taking a five day course on counterfeit and alterated coin detection, taught by J.P. Martin and Bob Campbell. This course has been very useful and I think will be the most important information I will get out of this trip. We have been able to handle counterfeits and forgeries of all types, all from the ANA archives. The class normally runs over the mandated time, in order to get in as much information as possible.

Also this week I took night courses in varieties and errors, and a course taught by George Cuhaj and Joe Paonessa on the minting process. The latter was hands-on, using a jeweler's punch and press to create coins out of pewter. Naturally the attraction is to create errors, such as brockages, strike-throughs, clips, chain strikes, etc. Just as fun was making ancients using a hammer and a blob of silver.

What is as valuable as the courses in this seminar is the chance to speak to a great variety of collectors, some of whom are leading experts in their fields. The format is very informal, everyone eats lunch in the cafeteria, so it is possible to talk to just about anyone in attendance. The names of the more well-known numismatists here this week reads like a list of many of those authors CT members probably have in their numismatic library. In addition several of the senior graders at PCGS, NGC, ANACS, and DGS are instructors in many of the courses. For someone in the coin business or doing research in a numismatic field, the networking potential is rich.

I will not regret attending this seminar and will make a great effort to come back next year. It is encouraging that there are so many YNs here, and that the ANA is trying hard to get as many as possible to stay interested in the hobby. At the auction last week about $20000 was raised for the granting of YN scholarships next year.

Any specifics on the above I would be glad to answer but I will leave it to anyone interested to ask questions.

 

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Although we are taking different courses Acanthite and I have been running into each other several times a day the last two weeks.

The courses I took this year are:

Advanced Grading of US Coins - This course concentrates on honing your grading skills of uncirculated and Proof coins but tosses in a few ciruclated coins for good measure. There is not a lot of instruction per se; rather you grade coins rapid fire and learn from class discussion and detailed explanations of how the instructors grade the coins. Most of the time we split into groups of 4 and graded each coin individually. Then we discussed each coin as a group and reached a concensus grade for our table. We swapped off being finalizer each round. A running score was kept for each table (or mini grading company). A point was awarded for grading the coin the same as the TPG; no points were awarded for being +/- 1 grade. You don't even get a point if you miss the color of copper, FB, FH, FBL, PL, DMPL, etc. Sometimes my table was the top "grading company"; sometimes we were dead last. To make things interesting, we all changed seats a few times so we weren't always stuck with the same people. I really enjoyed this class and feel like I learned a lot. I know I will never look at hairlines the same now.

Early US Commemorative Coins (2-Day Course) - This course was taught by ANA Executive Director Larry Shephard and was excellent. Larry is one of - if not the - top experts on Early US Commems and at one time owned the highest graded complete 144-piece set of silver Commems. Larry went through each type as well as date and MM for different characteristics such as luster, toning, availability in each grade, where to look for marks, etc. For anyone interested in collecting Commems this is some GREAT info. The guy that sat behind me in class owns a complete set of silver and gold Early US Commems. That includes the two $50 Pan Pacs! Another student owns the highest graded 144-coin set of silver Commems (purchased from Larry and since upgraded). Many of these coins are "finest known". This set is currently on display at the ANA Museum. Other students are major, major coin dealers who have forgotten more about coins than I will ever know. I felt like a nobody compared to those people but I know I learned a lot and will be much better prepared to go out and buy better quality Commems.

The Chinese Counterfeit Threat - This 2-day course is being taught by Beth Deisher (Coin World editor) and Susan Headley (Coin World reporter) and starts tomorrow. I am really looking forward to this course.

Editing Digital Coin Photos with Photoshop - This one-night mini-seminar taught me what I need to edit my coin photos. I missed seeing a perfect game by my local AAA baseball team but I guess it was worth it. (Yeah, right.)

CAC - A Little Sticker Makes A Big Difference - This two-night mini-seminar was taught by John Albanese - founder of CAC. I was somewhat disappointed with this course but I won't go into detail about just yet.

And, for the first time, I was an instructor at this year's Summer Seminar. A buddy and I taught a two-night mini-seminar on basic counterfeit detection. Our class was sold out with a waiting list. We finished up a couple of hours ago and the students, almost to a person, were very, very pleased with the class. It was fun but also tiring. If we do it again next year I think it will be much easier. I know we will need to tweak several things but all in all I think it went very well. Tonight we had two guests drop by to speak to our students. John Dannreuther (founder of PCGS) dropped by and did a show and tell with several counterfeit coins from his collection. Bob Campbell (former ANA President, instructor of the full counterfeit detection course and coin dealer) entertained us with a couple of coin dealer stories. It was fun but I am glad it is now over.

I really think ANA Summer Seminar is beneficial. It is amazing at how much you can learn in a short period of time. (I keep telling people that the more I learn the more I realize how much more there is to learn.) The talent pool of instructors here has no equal. And it is great to meet these incredibly talented people as well as other collectors.

I hope to see a few more CoinTalk members at ANA Summer Seminar 2010.

 

Sounds liek a lot of fun. Hope my circumstances allow me to attend next year.

 

I would love to attend the event. It sounds like there is much to learn there..
Thanks for the reports.

 

Great reports. Sounds like you're getting a lot out of the seminars and contacts that you're making. Thanks for sharing.

 

Please do, when you get around to it. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the class. Thanks in advance...MIke

 

Will do, Mike. When I get time.

 

Great post - both of you! Sounds like an incredible experience!

Thanks for sharing with such detail!

Darryl

 

Everyone I've spoken to had a similar opinion of this mini-seminar.

I had the opportunity of looking at some of the coins Hobo took to this seminar. It was a good distribution of quality, from very crude contemporary counterfeits to deceptive modern fakes of gold coins.

 

Glad to see two of my main CT buds hook up, Brad and Bruce, or Acanthite and Hobo.

I just knew you two would enjoy each others company. Bruce Hobo, your DVD;s are on the way I promise !! Brad, your coins are safe in may safe !!

Keep the updates coming.....we enjoy all of them.

:whistle:

 

Thank you so much for posting! I have always wondered what this seminar would be like. It sounds like something I will definitely want to take part in in the future.

 

This was a great post. I hope I get to take some of these classes in the future.

 

Day one of the 2-day course - The Chinese Counterfeit Threat - was excellent. Beth Deisher (Coin World editor) and Greg Dubay (expert on Chinese counterfeits who is in direct contact with Chinese counterfeiters) brought literally hundreds and hundreds (if not thousands) of Chinese counterfeit coins. They had the typical low-quality Trade Dollars, Seated Liberty Dollars and Morgan Dollars we are all familiar with. They had Dansco albums filled with counterfeit SLDs, Trade Dollars, Morgans and Barber Halves. (The Dansco albums were counterfeit, too.)

They had Chinese counterfeits I have heard of but had not seen before. They had nearly every date of Shield Nickels. They had 3 Cent Nickels and 3 Cent Silvers. They had Lincoln Cents - 1909-S VDB, 1914-D, 1922. Indian Head Cents. Liberty Nickels. 1916-D Mercury Dime. Lots and lots and lots of Large Cents and Half Cents - from 18th Century Flowing Hair designs to late dates - all Red or Red Brown. Gold. There was also a number of gold coins - a $1 Gold, Liberty $2 1/2, a Stella, 3 or 4 Liberty $5, a couple of $10 as well as an Amazonian (smooth edge). None of these counterfeits were very deceiving.

Errors. Tons of "errors". Lots of off-centers, broadstrikes, etc.

Fantasy pieces, reeded edge Buffalo Nickels. Lots of mules - IHC obverse w/ Lincoln Cent reverse and vice versa, Liberty Nickel obverse w/ Buffalo Nickel reverse and vice versa, Morgan Dollar obverse w/ Peace Dollar reverse and vice versa, etc.

We split into groups of 4 to weigh and measure (diameter) a bag of about 25 coins. Our bag had a fairly convincing 1796 Large Cent. The coin had farily good details but the weight was slight high. The BIG giveaway to me was the edge - it had a smooth edge and had been struck in a collar. We also had a 3CS (3 Cent Silver), 3CN (3 Cent Nickel), Shield Nickel, Seated Lib Quarter, Hudson Commem Half and a bunch of Seated Lib, Morgan and Trade Dollars. All were fakes. The Hudson Half had a medal turn and looked fake from across the room. Surprisingly, the weight and diameter were dead on but it did not appear to be 90% silver to me. I would love to do a SG (Specific Gravity) test on that piece.

Speaking of Specific Gravity, tomorrow morning they will demonstrate to us how to do a SG test. (For ANA members, look in your August issue of The Numismatist for a good article by Brian Silliman on making your own inexpensive SG test setup.)

My favorite part of this course so far is the dies. Beth and Greg brought quite a few dies that were used by the Chinese counterfeiters. All the dies were cracked and of no more use to the counterfeiters. These dies were all cut by laser. Gone are the days of making a 1-to-1 transfer die. The modern counterfeiter scans a genuine coin into a computer and lets the software control a laser that cuts his die making an exact copy of the host coin. Beth said the software the Chinese counterfeiters us is the same software used by the US Mint (although the US Mint modifies it somewhat). I noticed that the devices all had an etched look to them. Before finding out they were cut with a laser I had thought they may have been spark-erosion dies.

Most of the dies were rather crude - entire flat across the surface with faint, very low relief devices and denticles that were not sharply detailed. A couple of dies were VERY good - they had been basined and had sharply detailed devices and denticles.

Remember when you could buy a defaced die used to mint State Quarters along with your State Quarter? The Chinese bought these defaced dies, ground the faces down smooth and used them to make new dies to make more counterfeit coins!

Tomorrow we get to see the "GOOD" stuff.

 

Have to say guy's it sounds absolutly facinating and I wish we had something similar over here :bow:

 

Today is the last day for my five day detection of counterfeiting course. It has been the most informative and intense of the classes I've taken. While the Chinese counterfeiting course described by Hobo above deals with the modern advances in China, my course dealt with the traditional fakes and counterfeits that show up in dealer shops every day. We spent the few days looking at slides, hundreds of slides, for every often seen contemporary counterfeit, fake, and alteration in US coinage. We learned all the methods of faking coins and the ways to evaluate which method was used on particular fakes.

Yesterday Bob Campbell gave a very interesting talk on toning, its affect on the market, and most importantly a great amount of detail on how to differenciate NT from AT. There was plenty of fascinating history in this talk, some controversial to say the least.

Also we went to a lab to see how to construct a balance for determining specific gravity, and watched XRF at work (x-ray fluorescence), which can be used to determine the chemical composition of objects such as coins.

The rest of the class has been to look at fakes and alterations, all that is contained in the ANA library, and get a feel for each series, the types of fakes that are found, and the fastest methods for evaluating each. The gold is especially interesting, since they tend to be the most deceptive.

 

Of all you mention, this would be great...I have been hacking my way through making dies and test strikes in pewter...I am now using photo resist and acid...I would love a hands on class on the process....count me as envious.

 

Here are some of the coins I minted. The dies were created by one of the instructors.

Ancient coin, AR, 8.65g, so about the weight of a stater (Corinthian). This was done by hot strike, over a previously cold struck piece that I recycled. The first picture is of the anvil die (which took the folding of the metal over the square die). The other die (hammer) came out flat, the central device is of a winged thunderbolt.




Also struck some pieces on pewter planchets on the screw press. However, there were problems with quality control and the strikes resulted in accidental errors.

The first was an off-center strike. Through some lucky fluke it shows the date.


A double strike, the second about 60% off-center.


A strike-though pewter. Really don't know how this happened, the metal was flicked onto the planchet at just the wrong moment. There was a YN in the room, I suppose I could blame him.

 

Thank you for the Two Posts. I started collecting coins when I was 7 yrs old. Most of all I know about coins, simply from hanging around many others far more advanced in the field. As a young hobbyist, I didn't have an opportunity to have formal training, you are both fortunate individuals.Later on in life, while I was on corporate transfer, in Colorado, well guess what, yup I did it. If you get a chance while you are there, take a short trip and visit Rocky Mountain Coin, I became close friends with Heinz while I was residing there. I haven't spoken with him in years, I hope he is well.

Continue to have a good time there and come back and teach us something. Thanks. Tom

 

I don't know how I missed this post. Excellent information, you can never know enough about counterfeits in this our hobby.
Thank you Brad!

Eduard

 

Thanks for reading and commenting on the posts from Hobo and myself in this thread.

Just and update, on the last evening of the seminar a banquet was held. It was announced that in the course of the two weeks over $50000 was raised from auctions for YN scholarships. If you are a YN and think you have a week or two free next summer, apply!

One last note on the content of the seminar, there was material for many facets of numismatic interest, not just US coins. I could have spent the whole two weeks on Spanish Colonial and Mexican coins alone. There was also a five day course on Roman and Greek coins. Also courses on paper money, both US and otherwise.