Certification of Coin Graders?

dpoole

Homerhall:

What's your position about a certification board with training criteria/certification exams for graders, say though ANA? You think that'd help stabilize the certificatiion business?

homerunhall

I think that the grading service business is pretty stable. The graders at PCGS and NGC certainly don't need to be certified and the ANA would certainly not be qualified to do it. What many people don't understand is that precision grading is an elite skill that few possess. And even the best graders in the world can disagree on grades. But that said, there is no financial motivation for the top grading services to be certified and no financial motivation for the "certifier" of grading services. The grading service system, at least as far as PCGS and NGC goes, is pretty efficient. People complain about it, but they may not complain so much if they knew (or truly remembered) how bad it was for coin buyers before PCGS.