I need a book or online guide to help sort my Jefferson MS-63s from the MS-64s from the MS-65s from the MS-66s, etc. I would like to be able to tell if my slabs are strong or weak for the grade. Also, need help with full-steps identification. Any recommendations?
There are several other grading guides too. One that is most often used is the ANA Grading Standards. BTW, they won't all agree. But since you are talking about slabbed coins look at the standards from the TPGs. Then look at already slabbed coins to get a feeling for the range within a grade. Finally compare your coin to what you've learned. And compare PCGS to PCGS and NGC to NGC. Their standards differ from each other.
McBlzr, I love the PCGS photograde site. However, maybe I'm a little daft. Without some sort of annotation or reasoning, I can't tell why they are graded as they are. Am I missing something? Kanga, I have the 1997 PCGS guide ("Coin Grading and Counterfeit Detection"). Is this one of the TPGs standards you are referring too? There is an approx. 2 pg summary on MS60 - MS70 for all coins, and little quarter page section on MS Jeffersons offering some "color commentary" about strike, luster, etc. Does the new edition have more info? Or perhaps there is another more explicit PCGS reference I'm not aware of. Definitely going to pick up the ANA guide. Ordering that now and I'll report back if that solves my problem. I can't wait to find a good guide and compare what I've learned to my actual coins. Thanks for the advice!!!
My first book on grading coins is the 1992 ANA grading book, it is in black and white, and it is falling apart, but I spent $8 on it a year ago, and I love to catalog with it, and it is just fun to use for common coins (pre-1992) to hone my grading skills. The PCGS photograde site is great, I love to look at the highest grades, but I can only get within three pictures of the grade, because not all coins wear the same, they are semi-consistent, but not able to be pictured without description.
While I'm waiting for the ANA grading guide to arrive. (And because every thread needs a picture.) A 1944-D ICG MS67 I intend to study...
