Australian Grading Pictorial Chart

I agree that we need to know what grading is all about. It is very important for the collector, so as to buy the coin in the right price range for its grading.

But for the online seller very good images of the coin is all important and not the seller's grading, as the buyer will grade and put their own price on the coin that is for sale.

This photo scale was published several tears ago, and is still the best for Australian coins.
I use this to grade my MY OWN coins and not use a TPG. In fact, I use it to grade all of my World coins as well.
Would much prefer to rely on this than the Sheldon scale, which is not much used in Australia anyway.

The grading of ancient coins places a lot more emphasis on other factors, rather than just wear.

hi Tim, Just had a look and it is great what you have done.

whats the chances of having a self grading page where you can select different items specific to your coin eg. number of pearls, mint luster etc in say a bullet button and it then spits out an approximate grading. I can possibly write a VB script to do this but I would not know how to integrate it into a website. may be a waste of time but food for thought.

Hi ECS,

Your idea is interesting, although I'd imagine possibly a little self-defeating?

My thoughts are that by the time someone has taken the time to identify specific features (or lack thereof), they are probably fairly close to determining their own rough position on grade.

The mind is a magnificent super-computer, and a lot of the distinctions and specifics are subconsciously considered.

Don't let me discourage you though, if you are thinking of doing something. It is a very interesting idea, but sounds complicated.

My thoughts are that your would probably need to identify 8 - 10 features or charateristics, possibly 5 from each side, and assign a point value to each characteristic.

Starting to sound a bit like the Sheldon system?

Now, if you could scan an image, and send it through to a program to assess your coin, that would be something!

Would not require any prior knowledge or learning (other than the obvious computer glitches and technical know-how associated with those).

Probably something that will happen in the future - for now we do that with our own 'super-computers', or with our friends on forums.

More likely the future holds a 'paid-for' online assessment by an individual / company.

An afterthought .....

The technology must exist, given 'facial recognition' programs, etc.

There is probably already software written that could be adapted to suit coin verification / evaluation.

That would solve a large part of the challenge.

Would probably cost a bucket-load though .....