United States Coins Literature

As long as you're studying grading you might as well stay on the same subject. As mentioned earlier in the thread the PCGS book is a good one, one of three I have always considered a must.

https://www.amazon.com/Official-Gui...-1&keywords=grading+and+counterfeit+detection

The 3rd of the books on grading I always recommend is this one -

http://www.coingrading.com/

Written by James Halperin, who is considered by most to be one of the best coin graders of all time, the book has a particular focus on Morgan dollars and provides you a lot of information on Morgans that you just don't find anywhere else.

Now there are many, many other books written on grading. Some of a more specialized nature and having to do with a particular series or type, others covering a broader spectrum. Many of them are good, others not so good. But each usually has something to add that will help you, the reader, to become better at grading coins, all coins.

When studying grading the idea is to get different perspectives on the subject from different authors, assembling the information from each in your own mind so that you may make use of the whole because no single book will tell you or teach you everything you need to know.

And yes, as others have said, at some point you must start working with the coins themselves. But if you do not first have the understanding, the basic knowledge that you can only get from the books, working with the coins will be a waste of time and in fact may be a detriment your learning. It would be kind of like you trying to write a book without you first learning the alphabet and the rules of grammar.