How Long To Grade A Coin?

They probably spend a few seconds looking at a coin. Probably no more than half a minute. Only MS-69 and MS-70 require 5x loupe- the rest can be done via naked eye.

That number also fits if you do the math, working out how many coins a company grades per year, how many graders they hire and how long a grader is expected to be "on the job". I seem to remember it being discussed on the forum here. Turned out it's physically impossible for a coin to get more than a half-minute's worth of examination.

Depends on the coins, most are well under a minute, most common coins the graders see, like Morgan dollars around 15 seconds under 30 seconds. More rare coins are usually handled by the senior graders, who aren't under time pressure and unless they are attributing a variety it takes most under 1 minute to grade. My High School buddy went on to form one of the bigger grading firms ICG, (since sold out) but they spent about what I said above. Some of the lesser seen coins will stop all activity in the grading room, such as Gobrecht dollars, ultra rarities, patterns, wild errors, etc. and everyone gathers around to see the coin and discuss it, but most days are full of lots, and lots of common coins to quickly assess and grade, more time is spent making sure the correct coin is on the sheet or computer screen that you are grading than the actual grading time, don't want to screw that up. Most of the TPG's require a coin to go through 3 different graders then if a consensus isn't made, it is kicked up to a senior grader or two for the final say so on a grade.

Another reason the graders like soft vinyl flips in 2.5" or larger. I know PCGS required that, ANACS prefers it, the flips may have PVC in them, but the coin isn't in it for more than a week during shipping and grading, it's much easier on the coin and the grader's fingers when needing to remove the coins quickly examine and move onto the next one.

That pretty much explains everything.

An example is FB designation of Roosevelt dimes. If you look at PCGS images, you would be shocked to see what has been graded FB. I myself have sent in identically struck FB coins and have had one designated FB while another was not.

This also explains market grade being so important IMO.