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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Insider, post: 3011804, member: 24314&quot;]<span style="color: rgb(179, 0, 179)">Jack D. Young, posted: &quot;You worked at ANACS? And now ICG? Does ICG have the &quot;stereomicroscope&quot; you keep referring to?&quot;</span></p><p><br /></p><p>Yes, Jack.&nbsp; When I was about 6 or 7, my grandfather gave me an antique French brass microscope and a collection of slides. I still have it.&nbsp; Since then, I&#039;ve used a microscope to look at things in Biology classes in high school and Biology, Mineralogy, and Genetic classes in college.&nbsp;&nbsp; Funny thing, I never looked at a coin with one until joining ANACS.&nbsp; The Mint authenticators used them and they trained my boss how to authenticate coins.&nbsp; Since then (almost 50 years), I&#039;ve used a stereo microscope every where I&#039;ve worked including NGC and NCS.&nbsp; BTW, I think one reason the second tier TPGS are so strict is they use stereomicroscopes to examine coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>I RARELY grade or authenticate ANY coin without looking at it with my <b><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0)">eyes </span></b>first.&nbsp; The <b><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0)">scope and florescent light</span></b> (4.5X and two eyes unless more magnification needed) second and finally a <b><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0)">7X hand lens</span></b>.&nbsp; You see Jack, I wish to see everything possible to see on a coin in order to make an informed opinion.&nbsp; Then I want to see what 98% of the other people can see with just their hand lens.&nbsp; Additionally, after seeing the characteristics on coins under high magnification a student is able to ID them with a low power hand lens.&nbsp; I puke when I see well-known, knowledgeable, professionals discussing something on a coin for several minutes when it should have only taken a few seconds if they had been trained with a scope.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p><span style="color: rgb(179, 0, 179)">Also, do you really feel that non-seasoned copper collectors are actually &quot;these idiots you mention&quot; as you previously stated? Wow, talk about &quot;self serving&quot;</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(179, 0, 179)"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Nice try Jack.&nbsp; The idiots are the folks who don&#039;t believe a TPGS can make an honest mistake.&nbsp; The idiots are those who you show a very deceptive RAW fake yet they don&#039;t believe you and think you are lying that it was ever in a slab.&nbsp; </span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">IMHO, <b>the only &quot;Self-Serving&quot; going on is being done by those &quot;experts&quot; showing counterfeits in TPGS slabs and claiming they are doing it to show how dangerous the fakes are.</b>&nbsp; I was born at night but not last night!&nbsp; </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">PS You should get an expensive stereomicroscope to study the big cents (if you don&#039;t have one).&nbsp; It will open up a whole new world of numismatics to you and make coin attributions much quicker.&nbsp; </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">PS I&#039;ll look forward to meeting you at a show one day and picking your brain.&nbsp; &nbsp; </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(179, 0, 179)"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(179, 0, 179)"></span>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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