Grading Coins by Photographs

For anyone wanting to learn how to grade coins, I don’t think that there is a better book on the market than this one.  Whether you are completely new to coin grading or are already an experienced coin grader, I think that you will like this book.  It serves not only as a tutorial but also as a reference guide that you can use any time you are grading coins.

While this review will point out many great things about this book, I don’t want you to think that I am not going to point out the book’s short comings. When I buy a book, I always have certain hopes for what the book will discuss. And, unfortunately, Q. David Bowers did not meet all of my expectations.  But, despite not meeting all of my expectations, Grading Coins by Photographs is an excellent book that should be a part of any coin collector’s library.

Overview Review of Grading Coins by Photographs

This book is broken into seven chapters with the seventh chapter being the heart and soul of the book.  As is common with most coin collecting books, the first six chapters give an overview of the history of coin collecting and coin grading basics.  The seven chapters are:

1.  Importance of Grading

2.  History of Grading

3.  Expert Techniques in Grading

4.  Understanding the Surfaces of Coins

5.  Smart Grading and Buying

6.  How to Use This Book

7.  Grading U.S. Coins

Forward by David M. Sundman

One of my favorite parts of this coin collecting book is the forward by David M. Sundman.  Sundman is one of the owners of Littleton Coin Company.  Most coin collectors have heard of Littleton Coins.  This coin store advertises in every coin collecting magazine.  Often Littleton Coins is criticized as being overpriced, but most coin collectors acknowledge that Littleton Coins sells great quality coins that are accurately graded.

It was nice to read in the forward about how Sundman began collecting coins.  I also highly recommend reading the forward because Sundman outlines why coin dealers must accurately grade their coins.  If you are interested in becoming a coin dealer, I think this is a must read.

Chapter One – The Importance of Grading

Chapter one provides a good primer on why coin grading is an important skill to learn.  First and foremost, Bowers stresses that coin values are determined by two things – scarcity and quality.  If you don’t want to have to only buy certified coins, you have to learn how to grade coins.  Otherwise, you will never know whether you are paying too much.

This is the reason why I bought this book.  In my journey to become a numismatist, the fun for me is looking at coins, grading them myself, and feeling proud of the collection I have put together.  I don’t want to have to rely on coin grading services to tell me if a coin is of high quality.  I want the freedom to be able to buy none slabbed coins and know that I have not overpaid.

Chapter Two – History of Grading

This chapter walks coin collectors through how coin grading has changed throughout the centuries.  It explains how the 70 point grading system eventually became the standards and the rise of coin grading services, like ANACS, PCGS and NGC.  For those into history, I think you will enjoy this chapter.

Chapter Three – Expert Techniques in Grading

This was one of my favorite sections of the book.  Bowers explains how to get started learning coin grading.  He explains that you should focus on learning to grade one coin series at a time.  I think that this is very important.  You have to look at a lot of coins in order to understand why one coin is graded an MS-65 and another is graded an MS-64.  If you jump around from one coin series to another you will miss the subtleties in the grading.

One of the best pieces of advice given by Bowers in this book is that beginning coin collectors should take advantage of the Internet when learning to grade coins.   Before the Internet, the only way to see lots of coins was to visit a coin shop or go to a coin show.  With the Internet, there are tons of online coin auction websites that provide pictures of certified coins.  Bowers recommends that you look at these photos and examine why the coin grading service assigned the grade that it did.  I think that this is excellent advice.

Chapter Four – Understanding The Surfaces of Coins

This is one of the most technical chapters of Grading Coins By Photographs.  In this chapter, Bowers explains the metals used in making coins, how those metals react over time to the environment and the things people do to preserve coins.  Bowers also does a great job explaining dipped coins and cleaned coins and what to watch out for.

Chapter Five – Smart Grading and Buying

Chapter 5 provides a good overview on how smart coin grading will help you to buy great coins and make money collecting coins.  In this chapter, Q. David Bowers explains how coin collectors can use expert grading to make sure that they are buying coins on the high end rather than the low end of a particular grade.  For instance, Bowers stresses that while two coins may be graded MS-65, one coin could be greatly superior to another.  It might have full details, better luster, or just generally better eye appeal.  This is what I am hoping to learn from coin grading.  I want to be able to assemble the best coin collections for the grade that I can afford.  I am not going to be able to afford MS-65 coins in all coin series.  But, I can make sure that I am buying the best coins for the grades that I can afford.

Chapter Six – How To Use This Book

In this chapter, Bowers provides his thoughts on the best way to use Grading Coins by Photographs.  I don’t really have much else to say here.  It is the set-up for the main chapter of the book.

Chapter Seven – Grading U.S. Coins

As I have mention before, chapter seven is the reason to buy this book.  In this chapter, Bowers provides tips on how to grade every U.S. coin type.  He discusses the history of each coin type, the striking and sharpness characteristics of each coin type, and pictures of that coin in uncirculated condition through the circulated grades.

The pictures of the coins for each grade are outstanding.  The photos that Bowers has used do a great job of showing how a VG-8 coin looks compared to a G-4 coin.  The photos are great tools when looking online to determine whether coins are accurately graded.

In addition to the great photos, Bowers’ explanation of what to look for in each coin grade is outstanding.  For example, Bowers explains where to look on each coin type to determine sharpness, strike and wear.  I love these explanations because it tells me where to look on a coin for details and wear on those key points.

Why I liked Grading Coins By Photographs

For anyone who wants to learn how to grade coins, I think that this is the best book I have read.  The photographs are excellent tools to help you visualize the differences between grades.  My positives are:

• great coin photographs
• best study guide for how to grade coins
• interesting to learn what Bowers looks for when grading coins and determining whether to buy a coin

My Criticisms of the Book

While I think that this is the best book ever written on coin grading, I believe that Bowers could have done more to help beginning coin collectors learn how to grade coins.  Here are the books negatives:

• Bowers does not adequately show how to grade Mint State coins.  For the circulated coin grades, Bowers shows pictures of each major circulated coin grade.  But for the Mint State grades, Bowers does not show a picture of each grade.  When collecting U.S. coins, many coins are only seriously collected in Mint State conditions.  I don’t understand why Bowers would not provide better tips and photos for grading Mint State coins.  This is a huge negative of the book!!
• Bowers could have written more about how to grade each coin type.  It seems like Chapters One through Chapter Six are kind of filler in the book.  I wish that Bowers would have focused more on the exact grading tips instead.  For instance, Bowers could have provided checklists for each coin type for how to grade it.  He could have discussed in depth what to look for in certain key dates of any series.
• I wish that Bowers explained how to grade coins when all you have to look at are photographs online.  Many coin collectors today buy coins online.  It seems that Bowers could have provided some tips on how to determine whether an online coin photo is accurately depicting the coin.  This would coin collectors tremendously.

Summary Review of Grading Coins By Photographs

While I have listed several serious shortcomings of the book, I still believe that this is the best coin grading book.  Before this book, most people recommended Photograde: Official Photographic Grading Guide for United States Coins, 19th Edition. I believe that Bowers’ book has bested Photograde.  If not for any other reason than, Grading Coins by Photographs provides color photographs of coins.

If you want to learn how to grade coins, or if you want a resource to help you to quickly visualize the coin grades, I highly recommend this book.  You should read more about this book at Amazon here – Grading Coins by Photographs.  Amazon also has a great review of this book.

These coin collecting forums are in no particular order.

1.  CoinTalk Forums – These forums are perfect for beginning coin collectors and expert coin collectors.  I really love the community here.

2.  Coin Community Forum – Like the CoinTalk Forums, the Coin Community Forum feels more like a family.  Everyone there is very friendly and helpful.

3.  Coin Network – This site is more than just a coin collecting forum.  It is a social network for coin collectors.  The Coin Network has a forum section, a blog post section, and a section to create groups.  In fact, I have created a group for coin collecting bloggers.  If you are a blogger who writes about coin collecting, please join this group.  It is a great way to network with other coin collectors and bloggers.

4.  Susan Headley’s Coin Forum – Susan Headley is one of the best coin bloggers.  She writes the Susan’s Coins Blog at About.com.  If you have not read Susan’s blog articles, head on over there right now.  She is an excellent writer and very passionate about coins.  In addition to being a great writer, Susan has a great coin collecting forum.

5.  Collector’s Universe Forums -  Collector’s Universe does not just cater to coin collectors.  However, this forum does have an active coin collector community.  Like the other forums mentioned here, the community at Collector;s Universe loves coin collecting.

Do you have a favorite coin collecting forum that is not on my list?  I would love to hear about it.  I am always looking for more places to meet interesting coin collectors.