Question About Grading

[wireless2u-migration]

Because I just came into possession of some coins, I am starting to take an interest in coin collecting.

 

I attended a show yesterday just to see what the selling price might be and could not really tell anything as I do not know how to grade the coins nor did I want to sit down at someone's table and take their time teacing me.

 

However, I would appreaciate it, if anyone on the list would take a look at the photo of one of my coins (posted below) and tell me what grade it is, a little about why it is graded that way, what a coin - one grade higher would have to possess and what a coin one or two grades lower would be like.

 

Pictures of my 1885 Dollar

 

Your help is much appreaciated,

[John Maben]

Hello. It's a common date, looks MS63 by the image, better than average strike, worth perhaps $25 wholesale. A decent coin. Pictures are sometimes deceiving though. Look for the PNG logo in your yellow page ads, and go there to ask for further advice.

 

You can't learn to grade in a day, or a week, or even months. You'd need to take a serious interest and devote considerable time to it. However, factors such as strike, luster, marks, minting defects, toning, and more all come into play in determining the grade of a coin.

 

Best of luck in your numismatic endeavors.

 

John

[TomB]

Grading uncirculated coins, such as the coin in your image, is difficult to learn from images alone. A good thing to do is to buy a book on grading and then ask a local dealer some of the finer points on grading. Also, go to some local shows, as it seems you may have done, and look at some graded coins. An excellent book to learn how to grade circulated coinage is the Official ANA Grading Standards for United States Coins and this can be picked up at most coin stores or larger retail book chains. Your local library might also have a copy. By reading this book, and looking at the images, you will see where the high points are in each series and this will help you grade coins better. Good luck.

[Oldtrader3]

Typical "O" Mint strike on obverse. Coin looks to be MS63 (as others observed). Most of us learned by going to local shops, to coin shows and by looking at many example coins. You should do the same in your area of collecting interests.

 

No one is an expert on all series of coins. Pick a series (or two) that you wish to learn about and start studying that series. Q. David Bowers says: "Buy the book before the coin". There is much to be said for this philosophy. Good luck in the hobby.