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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;desertgem, post: 3904716, member: 15199&quot;]One process to take the first steps on learning to grade is to learn the succession of changes that occurs with normal wear and/or handling in the monetary chain of even uncirculated coins&nbsp; ( mint, distributors of coinage, banks, etc ) where grade can be affected by incidental knocks and scrapes in a bag or rolling machine.</p><p><br /></p><p>I found this a great learning method when I started learning to grade years ago. Get a box of nickels as they are good size and wear slower than copper cents, and take a 2 x 4 feet or so piece of cardboard and start arranging them in amount of wear and noticing which areas wear the quickest. If you find a coin in between 2 of the board move the a little and insert until you can not finds any more with any variation that you do not have covered ( although there are infinite levels , we can not detect microscopic differences. I used a dab of double sided tape to hold them as I was afraid I would get clumsy and mess them up</p><p><br /></p><p>Then find a grading book or something on line to see where you want to draw the lines for the different grades. First do just the main ones G,VG,F,XF,AU, uncircuated. Then after you are happy with this, start trying to match up the sub grades ( AU50, AU 53, AU55, AU58) etc. By the time you finish, you will be way ahead of most newer collectors. The UNCs have more areas to consider, but you can decide what normal factors are important for grades given.&nbsp; IMO, Jim[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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