Grading Guides

[murty]

I am interested what in knowing the best grading guide to use. I have seen the ANA grading guide,Photograde,A guide to grading by Brown and Dunn,How to grade coins by James L Halperin.

Are any of these better then the others for specific denominastions or series.

Thank you for any and all feedback.

[TomB]

My favorite general book for this is The Official ANA Grading Standards for United States Coins now published by Whitman and in the sixth edition. However, specialized books often have slightly different grading standards for their series and you will find good images within the David Feigenbaum (Lawrence) series for Barber coinage, David Lange's publications on Lincoln cents, Mercury dimes and Buffalo nickels, Al Overton's (now, Don Parsely) masterwork on early half dollars and other publications. Overall, these book specialize within the circulated range of grades. One of the best books I have ever seen for overall numismatic content where color images were included for high grade pieces is the first edition of the Coin Grading and Counterfeit Detection work by PCGS.

[murty]

Thank you very much.

[James_OldeTowne]

My favorite general book for this is The Official ANA Grading Standards for United States Coins now published by Whitman and in the sixth edition.

I agree. Brown & Dunn (B&D) used to be something of a standard, but even in the latest edition, their images are horrible and practically useless on most series. It's like they are using the exact same photos they used back in the 1960s.

[BillJones]

My favorite is still the ANA Grading Guide. It has decent photos and descriptions. I would not bother with Photograde because it is outmoded and better photos appear in the ANA guide. Brown and Dunn, with its drawings, was a great step forward in the late 1950s and early ‘60s, but now it is well behind the times.

 

The PCGS guide useful for Mint State coins, but I don't care for the circulated coin part of the book at all. To me it is very self-serving in its lack of photos for circulated coins, sketchy descriptions and at times watered down standards. Over the years the TPGs have had a bad habit of over grading circulated coins, and the PCGS guide is a reflection of that.

 

[ant]

im getting the ana myself! i have the photograde (zyrus press) but it looks like some1 drew the pics in.

[bsshog40]

I like the ANA and Photograde books myself.