Before Third Party Grading, there was the Rotagrader - no more guessing what grade a coin is-Updated
Mr_Spud
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A Christmas present to myself, just won on eBay 🌞
Mr_Spud
26
Comments
That's so cool! I wonder how they fit so many coins into that little apparatus?
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Very cool!
This got me looking around for their checklist inside, and found this;
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-rotagrader-1960s-coin-1793415227
Just curious, the Barber half dollar changed over to Morgan Half Dollar in 1904?
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Have never seen that before! Thanks for posting it!
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
This is the greatest thing since the Bass-O-Matic…
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Maybe it's the food coma and wine playing tricks on me, but I swear I saw "ACCUCRAP" at first and thought of a certain "grading" service.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Never heard of this.
Note only three grades, Good, Fine, EF.
I am pretty sure PCGS is using this device to grade my submissions…
WS
But also a reminder of existence of intermediate grades.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
With the length of time for PCGS turnaround I'd imagine they only have one gadget, which is shared by the grading room, and is currently unavailable as they await an expert to oil its messed up gears.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
We all might get banned for this one.
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How does it work?
I don’t have it in hand yet, but I think you are supposed to compare the coins you are sorting to the pictures on the Rotagrader and turn the dial until the coin you are looking at matches the wear on the picture on the Rotagrader and then you know the grade. Like if your coin matches the pictures below on the Rotagrader then the grade is G for good. Then you can mark that coin off on your checklist which I’m guessing might fold up and get stored inside a compartment in the Rotagrader, not sure of that though.
I’ll know more when I get it, like I’m not sure if there is a compartment or not and not sure if this one is just for Barber dimes or if it has other denominations included on the same device. I bought it as a companion piece for my Scan-O-Matic made by the same manufacturer 🌞
Mr_Spud
That is really amazing! And you even have the box. Congrats
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
That's the craziest and coolest coin-related item I've seen in a long, long while!
Dave
Way cool 😎
Very cool, googling around I see this from a 2015 post on another forum -
"Basically it's a long sheet of paper with a picture representation of what a coin in a specific grade should look like. It has indian head and wheat cents. V, buffalo, and Jefferson nickels. Barber, mercury, and Roosevelt dimes. Barber, standing liberty, and Washington quarters."
Do you know if there’s a date printed on the instructions? Would love to know when this gadget was made.
I have never seen a ROTAGRADER before but would imagine it dates from the same time period as the SCAN-O-MATIC which was the early to mid 1960s. I recall seeing the SCAN-O-MATIC on sale at an E, J. Korvette store near me during that time period.
Finding either of those with the original boxes and instructions and in working condition is quite a find!
I’ll look it over and update this thread when I have it in hand.
Mr_Spud
Thanks!
The Gimbels coin counter was selling both the Scan-O-Matic and the Rotagrader when I bought coins from them in the mid 1960s. I thought about buying the grading aid, but not the roll reviewer. The only grading reference available at the time was the Brown and Dunn book which had line drawings. Buying and selling rolls was a big deal at the time. I didn’t realize that the selection coins in the grading device was so limited.
I just did a patent search and found the patent for the ScanOmatic that was applied for in 1960 and granted in 1966
Mr_Spud
Amazing! I never would have thought a device like this existed!
This really was quite revolutionary for the times with futuristic features. Look at the Mid Century design of that Scan-O-Matic that is just captivating and could have been used as prop for the Jetsons if there was a coin collecting episode. But the real vision was to offer an image for G that would pioneer the Walmart parking lot find grade 50 years later. The only thing missing is a TV commercial pitch by Dan Aykroyd.
Seriously… very cool and quite a tool that illustrates the progression of numismatics. Well played that you own both items.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
You need a VEG-O-Matic to go with your collection.
Scan-O-Matic may have been the best invention of the '60s.
I think there's something to be said for the Brown & Dunn and early ANA grading guides and their line drawings for circulated grades. These drawings can illustrate wear accurately, precisely, and free of scratches, spots, schmutz, and half-tone artifacts. It's as if you carefully took pictures of 100 different coins in the same grade, aligned them exactly, and averaged them together, then applied a high-pass filter. You'd end up with the line drawings. It would actually be a cool experiment to see how closely TPGs come to the line drawing standards shown in the old ANA guides.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
I got my Rotagrader. It doesn’t have a compartment for the checklist, you are just supposed to carry both the Rotagrader and the checklist in your pocket when you go looking for coins. I’ll post some pictures later of the whole checklist. It didn’t have any date printed on it saying when these were sold though, so I did a search on the Internet Archives and found the following:
From
I found this ad
And From
I found this ad
As for the company that was marketing these items, I found this record showing that the company is now dead but that it started on 8/19/61
I also googled the inventor of the ScanOmatic and unfortunately he passed away in 2013
Mr_Spud
I also just now found another patent that probably covers the Rotagrader, but has more info than the grade. It might be the “Keymark” referred to on the checklist that came with the Rotagrader
Here’s where it mentions Keymark on the Rotagrader checklist, I don’t know if they actually ever sold these or not, I can’t find any records of it elsewhere, but it reminds me of CoinFacts plus a price list and a checklist all rolled into a portable device
Mr_Spud
@messydesk The thing I really like about the Brown and Dunn book is that they don't just say what to look for. there are small circles and arrows pointing to details they want you to focus on. I use my copy every once and awhile just to refresh my memory. James
Oh and the scan thing is cool
Stinking cool!
Smitten with DBLCs.