Hi Edge,
I had a friend tell me about it and I thought the same thing. So far I have done
Counterfeit Detection, Grading Coins today and, I'm working on modern minting process.
Counterfeit Detection had great information and they explained everything very simply. The material however was very dated. The video was put out in '92 and I'm sure it was cutting edge in it's day but my cell phone takes better pictures than that camera did. It's kind of hard to see some of the things they are talking about in the video. If you take the time to Google and look at better pictures you will see what they are explaining.
The course on grading coins today was very similar. Great information in the front but the second half of the book is like an old school black and white Photograde. It's worth taking for the information but I like NGC's "Making the Grade" or the PCGS Photograde app for iPhone as far as Photogrades go.
The "Modern Minting Process" course is much more difficult than I expected it to be. I've been a professional dealer for just over 3 years and my grandfather collected so I'm not 'new' to coins. But, the difficulty took me by surprise. This course was updated in '11 and is GREAT. The pictures of all of the different errors and varieties are great and the information is very in depth. I didn't know a whole bunch about in depth about the minting process going in so the sheer amount of information that it goes over and all of the different types of errors has been difficult to keep strait. However, I think that once I get all the way though the book and review the beginning once I finish it I think that the pieces will come together.
From what I hear about the grading MS coins it is very good. And the intro to numismatics looks great. I'm honestly really excited about going through it but, looking though it I know a good chuck of the info already so I choose to start with courses that I thought would help me most in day to day.
Overall, I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys coins. It's not the easiest thing I've ever done but, it's designed to teach and I believe that it does a great job of that.
As a side note. I hear that the
ANA is redoing the courses and 'updating' them. I heard it may be a few years before everything is done though.
What kind of things do you collect?
Posted 07/19/2012 5:18 pm
