Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Conder101, post: 1589887, member: 66&quot;]As mentioned Compugrade did it, and so did PCGS.&nbsp; It was called the Expert System.&nbsp; It used computers to scan the coin and create a &quot;digital fingerprint&quot; of the coin (So it could be recognized if it was ever resubmitted.) and the computer graded the coin as well to at least one decimal place but they only used whole numbers on the slabs.&nbsp; The Expert System was consistant with its grading as well always grading the coin to the same grade each time.&nbsp; It was hyped in the trade publications in early 1991 and made it&#039;s debute at the one hundredth anniversary ANA convention in Chicago. (Compugrade debuted there as well.)&nbsp; They had an exhibit there showing it off and explaining what it did.&nbsp; They even had a grading challenge where you could compare your grading against the machine. (We were consistant the machine always graded one point higher than I did.)&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>After the convention Compugrade lasted for about six months but we never heard of the Expert System again. (Until PCGS came up with this great new concept of Secure Shield that scans the coin and creates a digital fingerprint so if the coin is ever resubmitted it will be recognized.&nbsp; Why does that sound familiar?)&nbsp; The problem was although the computer could grade and was consistent, it didn&#039;t always agree with the expert human graders.</p><p><br /></p><p>And they weren&#039;t the only one working on computer grading.&nbsp; So were the ANA and Amos Press.&nbsp; In fact one of the reasons Amos Press bought ANACS in 1989 was to get their research on computer grading. But nothing ever came of it.</p><p><br /></p><p>Oh and Accugrade also used decimal point grading on their early small sized slabs.&nbsp; They were roundly criticized for it&nbsp; because the prevailing attitude was &quot;Nobody can possibly grade precisely enough to justify decimal point grading.&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp; And at that time ACG was NOT considered the bottom tier service that they are today. They were ranked #4 just behind ANACS and ahead of INS and NCI and several others.&nbsp; They didn&#039;t become the bottom tier service until around 1992 after NCI closed down.&nbsp; By that time most of the other services had closed except for some of those that today we would call self slabbers.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>But patents are only good for I believe 27 years so the patents expired just about the same time as they came out with Secure Shield.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in