Grading Coins by Photographs

As with many coin grading books, the first several chapters do not deal directly with grading, but do provide sometimes valuable insight into the history and/or current trends.  Chapter 3 provides an overview on how to become proficient at grading coins.  If you want to know how to become proficient at grading coins, there is some good information in this chapter.  It is not how to grade a particular coin, but rather how to become a better grader.  For example, by examining several coins that are graded the same, you will get a better sense of the subtle differences that a single step in grade might entail. 

Chapter 4 discusses the evils of dipping and cleaning.  Again, while this is useful information, it is information that can easily be found all over the internet. 

Chapter 5 discusses “Smart Buying” and how the subtle differences can make a big difference in price of a coin.  It also discusses how you might perceive a MS64 coin to appear much more appealing that a MS65 due to strike, etc. 

Chapter 6 tells how to use the remaining chapter of the book which in essence is the grading part.

Chapter 7 finally gets to the actual grading which is where the book falls short, as do most grading books.  For example, for the Flying Eagle Cent there is an explanation of the differences of MS60 through MS70 coins.  The description does not cover all the steps and merely glosses over this most important part.  There is a puny picture of a MS65 Flying Eagle but that is it.  There is no comparison of different coins with different grades in the MS level.  This is a major flaw of the book.  The picture of the one coin in this range is so small that you could never really tell why it is or is not a MS65.  The picture is only slightly larger than life size.  And since it is a picture in a book, you lose most of the clarity to see hairlines, etc.  At least it is in color.  There should be pictures of MS62, MS63, etc for this coin.

The next picture is of a AU50 Flying Eagle with a generic description for the grades AU50, AU53, AU55 and AU58 all combined into a single paragraph with no real insight to determine the difference between these grades.  As you slide down the scale, this slight to mid-grades continues.  EF 40 and EF45 are combined, VF20 and VF30 are combined, F12 and F15 are combined, VG8 and VG10 are combined as are VG4 and VG6.  At least AG3 is by its self.  For all these grades, there is a corresponding picture, but again, to small.  This concept is applied in this manner for all coin series which in essence is not very helpful.

I was initially excited when I saw the pre-release info and title of this book.  But I was deeply disappointed when I received it.  Upon closer examination, this book is not quite up to par.  If you want nice examples of all the different grades, etc for a coin, this is not the book to have.  The pictures are just too small