New Coin Grading Website?

@CoinWorldCanada - I think this is a terrific idea. I've read reams of debates on the relative merits of the assorted TPGs and assorted views on objective grading features vs eye appeal etc...etc... My understanding is that there's a sort of hazy consensus about what matters but that there's a sizeable minority of informed people who disagree with that consensus. My own practise is to harvest as much information from as many possible sources as I can, and apply it over top of my own interests. It's the only way. If another credible source opens us I will use it.

Agreed completely that PGCS is #1 - except when it's not. I also agree that Andre Langlois's book is outstanding - except for the gaps. I also agree that ICCS is flawed, except that sometimes they're better than the others. Basically everyone has a point and the diversity of views is much of what's so interesting about all of this .

I like the old days where both grade and price were part of the negotiation with raw coins. Two informed people discussing a coin amicably and reaching an agreement. I still use TPG's but dislike them. I use them only for higher value pieces where potential buyers might balk without a TPG in place. We all have our biases and we've all seen instances of grading abuse by all TPG's. As the hobby continues to contract in popularity maybe the great old days will return where raw was king and negotiation stimulating.

Have you looked at coinsandcanada grading? They have pictures of all grades

Unless you have money and time to blow I wouldn't bother. The scope of the project is rather large and will take support from professionals who require pay. There are many other sites that have this information.

If you are setup for it that's amazing! Do you have any good domains names?

I, for one, would look forward to using your website.

Agreed with @okiecoiner about reinventing the wheel. If you're going to do this, do something new.

Here's a crazy idea - just blue sky here - no idea whether it's practical. Maybe the bioxrv.org model that's evolved in scientific publishing could be inspirational? When scientists publish their work it goes through a fairly standardized process. They start by submitting a manuscript to one of the many journals and an editor sends it out for peer review by several qualified peer scientists. The reviews come back, the editor makes a decision and usually, if the decision is at all favourable, the author has to make a detailed response to the reviews - sometimes including additional experimental work. Then it goes public - prior to that it's all private.

bioxrv inverts that. In this case, scientists post draft manuscripts of their publications on a public site before review. People who are interested can then read the pre-print and make comments, pose questions to the authors - there are often lengthy conversations. Often these conversations are between people who have never met before. After all this, the scientist can edit their paper and submit it to an actual journal. Or they can put another year's work into it to improve it.

There are all kinds of issues as far as scientific work is considered but it's a fascinating inversion and it's the most innovative thing that's come to the otherwise stagnant and stultifying world of academic publishing in decades.

I think something like this would be a very interesting match for coin grade - and that it would energize the hobby in general. I don't know about all of you guys but whenever I post something here I'm always very curious to see how it will be received and what alternative ideas to the one I post will turn up.

So, would it be possible to have a site where there's a grade description in text, maybe a few examples or maybe not, where people can submit their pictures of their coins. These would then be posted publicly and people (e.g. all of us nobs) could comment and make suggestions. There could be voting - coins would move up and down based on the cumulative vote. Or not - I'm not sure about that...

There would need to be some rules: the photos would have to be of sufficient quality - you could be quite specific about that. And any comments would have to be civil - there would need to be a mechanism to bar people if they act like jerks...I'm sure that's doable.

Over time, a sort of gallery of coins would be built upe. I think it would be super-cool and very engaging. I imagine the educational value for someone who is just getting in to coin collecting. It could have a fair bit of utility as well - I have a lot of coins that I would like to get graded but I typically reserve PCGS grading for coins that I think are worth it. That is, the grade would put the coin at a predicted value level that would be worth the expense of grading.

There could be various levels of editorial control of course - and for that matter you might need a sort of editorial board. There's a lot to think about...