Details here: http://www.pcgs.com/articles/articl...e&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ezine11112009 Think of it like PCGS's online version of photograde. Stay tuned....
"[FONT=arial,helvetica][FONT=arial,helvetica][FONT=arial,helvetica] A very easy-to-use interface has been designed, and will permit even a novice to estimate the grade to within several points." This I gotta see. [/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]
I think this could be a very good thing. I just picked up "Grading Coins by Photographs" by Q. David Bowers, ans dissapointed at the generic descriptions for the MS spectrum of grades; a MS60 Coin will have abrasions and contact marks. Less on a 63, even less on a 65. Wow... really?
Wow! This sounds like a great job! Maybe illini should submit his for the IHC's? Assuming they are all accurately graded.
I've seen most of the PCGS grading set in person since they regularly display it at the Long Beach shows. Pretty cool to see all of the different series. It's important to note that to my knowledge none of their grading sets used are all of the same date/mintmark but instead contain various dates. Not that big of a deal for some series, but for some of them striking differences on certain dates may be of great significance in the appearance of the coin compared to another of a different date in the same grade. For example, the 1908-S Indian has notoriously weak feather tips in the headdress. Very very rare to find a fully struck example with detail in the feathertips even in high grades such as MS65RD or MS66RD while other dates of indian cents even have clean feathers in circulated grades. My 1908-S MS63RD has about the best struck feathers I've ever seen on a 1908-S in any grade and they aren't even that sharp. Will be nice to see the PCGS sets though. I just hope they don't start charging to view them like they have done with their CoinFacts resource.
This is good news and will surly help a lot of collectors to get the hang on grading. Those were my exact thoughts.
The website has been launched. It is kind of like having the Photograde book online. I think that it's really nice but check it out yourself: http://www.pcgs.com/photograde/ Have fun...Mike p.s. I couldn't get it to work in Firefox, so if you're having trouble, try using IE.
I've had NO problems with this in Firefox 3.5.5 so far. Safari also works. I use a Mac. This is a very nice feature. Thank you!
Worst thing is, he says that for every coin pretty much...it's pretty much the same paragraphs for the whole book!!
