As any serious (or would-be serious) coin collector knows, coins are graded on a 70 point scale meant to standardize descriptions of coin condition. All else being equal, a higher grade coin should be more valuable than a lower grade, and at the high end of the grading scale the difference can be substantial. For example, a 1924 Standing Liberty quarter from the Philadelphia mint is worth about $600 in MS-65 condition. Not bad, but the same type of coin in MS-67 condition is worth $2,400!
Obviously it is in every collectors interest to be able to grade coins, at least to a degree, in order to avoid over paying for coins and identify attractive bargains. Learning to grade is definitely not easy to do, however, particularly since the best way to become familiar with the differences between coins of various grades is to examine coins that have already been graded by an agency such as PCGS or NGC. Accumulating such a reference set is usually beyond the means of a novice collector, so what is an aspiring grader (like me) to do?
For the thousands of collectors in similar circumstances, PCGS has released their Photograde online photo reference sets. These photo sets show high quality images of coins graded XF45, AU50, AU55, MS63 and MS65. Images are included for nearly all series of circulating coins produced in the 20th century, including Indian Head cents, Liberty nickels, Barber dime, quarter and half dollars, Morgan dollars, and Liberty and Indian head $2.50 and $5 coins.
The good: The pictures are large and detailed, and definitely show the difference between the lower and higher grades.
The “bad”: Even with pictures, differentiating between MS-63 and MS-65 is tough-to-impossible, and no explanatory text is included to tell why the coins were graded as they were.
The verdict: Photograde isn’t sufficient to be a stand-alone grading tool. However, in conjunction with a reference such as the Red Book, the Photograde pictures can be an invaluable resource.
