Customer Reviews

Photograde: Official Photographic Grading Guide for United States Coins, 19th Edition

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Beware of blank pages. The copy I got has blank pages 167, 171, 177, 185. This is very sloppy quality control at the printer's shop.
Image quality is what should set this book apart. Sadly, the illustrations are not high-quality photos. This was not the place to scrimp. These illustrations are not quite as good as those in the "Official ANA Grading Standards" book. One sees far better pictures in eBay.
Descriptions of grading points for coins are not consistent through a grade, in that the same points are not discussed in every grade of a coin. What points are discussed are not first fully described in the MS70 grade, so the reader clearly knows what the element should look like, and how it is degraded down through all levels.
Since neither the descriptions nor the photographs are of high quality, the book is not of high quality. Good idea, poor execution. What you see on the cover is not what you get inside.

This book gives photograde illustrations only to grade AU50, and the pictures are not very clear for comparison.

The book has all the information you need about coins, but the book quality is poor. A page came out of the book after only a little use. I had to tape the page back into the book. Poor quality! Not happy!

The description was that of a photographic grading guide. Photographic to me means just that...actual photographs of the different grades. Every items was in black and white. Also, the grading stopped at AU. What happened to the uncirculated grades?

Anyone other than a novice will be extremely disappointed with this product.

I've had this book for years. And yes, while it's a very good guide for grading coins in the inferior grades; and as someone mentioned, even many ten year old kids can do this--those aren't the grades that most often matter much with regards to US coins.

For example, a well known mail order coin company has a 1923 Mercury dime for sale, right now, for $8.75 in the grade of good--which is probably a bit much, for one of the lowest possible coin grades. On Ebay, the same coin in "choice BU" (and no one knows what that means exactly particualrly not on ebay), appears, for sale, and to be a roughly MS-60 coin. It can be "bought now" for $50 bucks. So that's the range that Photograde handles--Almost Good, to Brilliant Uncirculated. A range which varies from $5 - $50 on this particular, common date Mercury dime.

Now that same dime however, has sold recently at auction for $500 in MS66, $1800 in MS67, and a whopping $12,500 in MS68!

In other words, unless you're a kid collecting out of your lawn mowing proceeds, the real issue nine times out of ten; on most coins after 1850), isn't whether or not a coin rates VF or F, it's all about the 10 different grades from MS60--MS70.

It's frankly amazing to me that there isn'tt a good guidebook published by PCGS or ANACS, that can do in text form, what these organizations pretend to do every day of the year behind closed doors--determine grades of uncirculated and proof coins.

Such a book would be relatively expensive, maybe $50-$100 or more. But for people who collect coins at least in part as investments, this amount is barely significant in terms of what it would mean to teh collector.

Photograde? It's a decent enough compendium, but you can go online and get most of their grading criteria, with better pictures, for free. The book is sadly out of date IMO, in the sense that it still treats coin grade divisions, much as they were treated 30 years ago.

This book goes into detail as to what each coin may look like in the different stages of gradings. The pictures are photo-copy (black and white) like pictures of the coins when in each type of grading. They point out what to look for so you can determine what condition your coins could possibly be in. I would have preferred to have crisp and clear color photos to view the different stages of grading. Also the book shows pictures of each coin in the different stages but not one picture of the coins in MS-63 and better. It would have been nice to get to see the coins in the perfect condition as well so I could have that to compare to my coins. This is a nice book to have in your library as I did learn a couple things from this book but I could have lived without it.

The book is very thorough and gives a good detailed account of the various coin grades for specific US coins. The pictures could be of greater quality and have more detail. Still a very useful book

While the book is unique and helpful with the pictures depicting the grade of most coins, it is outdated! I was very disappointed to not find grading guides for the new state quarters (1999,ff). I read on the title page that it was last revised in 1995! Yet, the book was copyrighted in 2005. I thought I was buying a current book to aid me in grading my coins. Wrong!

This book hasn't been updated in ages and gives maybe 4 to 6 POOR black and white photos that take you up to AU. What about MS60-70??? This book is now an embarrassment and USED to be the heat.

Do not waste your money get "The Official American Numismatic Association Grading Standards of United States Coins", which isn't even up to my standards but is a whole lot better than this worthless book.

The Official American Numismatic Association Grading Standards of United States Coins (Official American Numismatic Association Grading Standards for United States Coins)

This book is a real disappointment. The photos are grainy and hard to see. Often times the coin in Fine, looks better than the coin in Very Fine. The Official ANA Grading Guide by Whitman Publishing is a much better offering. Exciting news!!! Q. David Bowers just released a new book called Grading Coins with Photographs! I'm sure this will be much better than either of these books. I can't wait to purchase my copy!