By F. Michael Fazzari, Numismatic News

In this column, I shall try to put an end to some misconceptions about technical coin grading. I have seen some inaccurate postings on numismatic online forums. Then, at a coin show recently, I listened as a dealer explained the difference between technical grading and commercial or market grading to a couple of older gentlemen purchasing some Indian $10 gold coins. It was clear to me that the young dealer had little understanding of technical coin grading or its roots.

So, who needs to know about a grading system that numismatists no longer use? Sit back, read on and you be the judge.

Let me first state that I was very closely involved with the conception, augmentation and refinement of technical coin grading beginning in 1973. My involvement continued up until the time technical grading was gradually replaced by commercial grading standards, beginning in the late 1980s. I’ll make no judgments or complaints here, just an effort to set the record straight in this limited space and provide an insider’s perspective about this chapter of numismatic history.

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By Eric Von Klinger for Coin World

In virtually any series of coins, collectors may run across a designation of “prooflike” surfaces, but the term is most often encountered in regard to Morgan silver dollars.

It gained currency in the 1950s and 1960s as the last of silver dollar releases from Treasury Department vaults took place. Seemingly vast quantities of decades-old coins suddenly were becoming available in “Uncirculated” condition.

It was apparent even among all these never-used coins that there were substantial differences in overall appealing qualities. Some were “bag-marked” (heavily affected by contact marks). Some were toned from contact with canvas. Some had dull surfaces and others – exceptional pieces – were, well, “prooflike.”

“Proof,” as collectors learn early in their grading lessons, is not a grade but a manufacturing process. A Proof generally is exceptionally well struck, but the surface might vary by process chosen. A Matte Proof, for instance, has a grainy-looking surface.

When collectors talk about “Proof surface” or “prooflike surface,” however, they mean a more usual, brilliant, highly reflective finish in the fields. (Fields are the flat, plain areas away from the design and inscriptions.)

A “prooflike” Uncirculated coin, then, is one with such fields, often described as “mirrorlike.”

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Ask Baby Boomer collectors how they got started collecting coins and there’s a strong chance many began by filling holes in blue Whitman coin folders with coins pulled from circulation.

The multiple dates and Mint marks in the holders encouraged many beginning collectors to avidly search their pocket change.

Many of today’s hobbyists, whether neophytes or collectors of long standing, still opt for coin storage boards, whether they are single-board, open space holders; tri-folds; multipage albums with sliding window covers, or something similar.

Coin World’s parent company, Amos Press Inc., through its Amos Advantage program for hobbyists, offers a wide range of coin folders and albums from a number of manufacturers.

Some of these manufacturers, as well as designated distributors, also advertise their products in Coin World.

Advantages, disadvantages

Each coin board, folder or album has its own set of advantages or disadvantages in storage and preservation, depending on the condition and value of the coins that an individual collector may choose to place in them and the composition of the storage medium.

Evolution

In Coin Collecting Boards of the 1930s and 1940s: A Complete History, Catalog and Value Guide, David W. Lange traces the genesis of coin boards from the first board created in 1934 by J.K. Post, who subsequently contracted for their printing with Whitman Publishing.

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By Eric Von Klinger for Coin World

For many of today’s older, longtime collectors, an Indian Head cent dated in the 1900s was likely the first antique they placed in their collection.

Parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, elderly friends of the family – all, it seemed, had set aside an assortment of the once familiar coins as they were fast disappearing from circulation in the post-Depression, postwar years of the 1940s. Mostly, they were from the late high-mintage years of the series.

These accumulators might have been curious first to find out what the old coins were worth, but on learning that most of them sold in Good to Fine grade for only a few cents, they were delighted to contribute one or more to the new collector.

Although the 20th century did not begin until Jan. 1, 1901, collectors often treat the Indian Head cents of 1900 as part of a group that begins that year and continues to the end of the series in 1909 and is commonly referred to as 20th century.
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