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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Hobo, post: 634088, member: 11521&quot;]Although we are taking different courses Acanthite and I have been running into each other several times a day the last two weeks. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The courses I took this year are: </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>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&#039;t even get a point if you miss the color of copper, FB, FH, FBL, PL, DMPL, etc. Sometimes my table was the top &quot;grading company&quot;; sometimes we were dead last. To make things interesting, we all changed seats a few times so we weren&#039;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.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>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 &quot;finest known&quot;. 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. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>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.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>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.)</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>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&#039;t go into detail about just yet.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>And, for the first time, I was an instructor at this year&#039;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.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>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. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I hope to see a few more CoinTalk members at ANA Summer Seminar 2010.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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