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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;illini420, post: 730402, member: 19423&quot;]I really do think a collector can learn to grade by relying on slabbed coins.&nbsp; In fact, I think it&#039;s a great way to learn to grade if you can afford it.&nbsp; In building my 1908-S Indian Head Cent grading set (link in my signature), I definitely improved my ability to grade Indian Head Cents, and especially learned to grade based on the current standards being used by PCGS.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I started my 1908-S IHC grading set because I wanted to learn how to grade indian cents better before I started to work on a collection of that series.&nbsp; I bought the books first and I also read Rick Snow&#039;s grading guide and learned some of the ins and outs of grading the series for sure.&nbsp; But I think I learned even more in buying the certified coins and in part relying on the slabbed grades as an independent check on my own developing grading skill.&nbsp; I really think it&#039;s much easier to learn to grade with physical examples of each grade in your hand than to learn based on descriptions and photos in print.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>In fact, I&#039;m not sure what better methods of learning to grade exist.&nbsp; You could buy a few books (which will each use varying standards which may or may not be outdated) and then buy a pile of cents and try to grade them yourself based on what you&#039;ve read.&nbsp; But once you come to the grade you think is correct, how do you know if you&#039;re correct???&nbsp; In buying slabbed coins, after I look at the coin and grade it based on what I&#039;ve learned and read, I can then look at the grade assigned to that coin by at least 3 expert coin graders who have certified the coin.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>True, it may be a pitfall to rely on the slabbed grades exclusively as they do get it wrong occasionally, but I still think it&#039;s a pretty good way to start out learning a series since you have some insurance built into the slab that keeps the coin marketable and will help to prevent the buyer from big losses when they sell vs. buying uncertified coins they don&#039;t know how to grade.&nbsp; Additionally, I didn&#039;t just buy one example of each grade when I was building my 1908-S grading set, I bought 2-5 examples of each grade, studied them against what I read in the books, and then kept the example I thought was best representative of the grade.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I&#039;m sure that was most a bunch of rambling because I&#039;ve been writing this at work between meetings and phone calls, but overall I don&#039;t think slabbed coins should be dismissed as a tool to teach someone to grade.&nbsp; Unfortunately, it costs a lot more to do it that way than to study the books.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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