Picture of the PCGS grading room

relayer

From the 18th Edition of Photograde. The picture is probably 10 years old though

bushmaster8

Looks like the first guy is grading through the flip!

Russ

Looks like a dungeon.

Russ, NCNE

Shamika

I'd prefer to see these people wearing gloves.

Maybe it's just me.

mgoodm3

Stimulating work environment.

braddick

Subliminal message whispered into the headphones... "bodybag...bodybag...bodybag..."

jbsteven

picture #2 is the guy who puts the PCGS fingerprint on the coins.

Can anyone identify the people in the photos?

Goldfinger

Can't be the grading room. There's no dartboard!

GoYankees

At the risk of sounding dumb...

What does "sonically sealed" mean? How do they seal a slab with soundwaves???

lava

<< <i>picture #2 is the guy who puts the PCGS fingerprint on the coins.

Can anyone identify the people in the photos? >>



Not without seeing a better photo of their fingertips.

Where are the gloves?

jbsteven

they do not use gloves

dorkkarl

is it still black & white?

K S

cdwegner

what do you think they use the computers for?

Betcha it's to check the Pop of a coin....

JadeRareCoin

Is that a bottle of Jack Daniels I see on desk of the middle grader??

Russ

<< <i>what do you think they use the computers for?

Betcha it's to check the Pop of a coin.... >>



The grade and other information from the submission is entered in to the computer. It has nothing to do with checking pops.

Russ, NCNE

jbsteven

<< <i>Is that a bottle of Jack Daniels I see on desk of the middle grader?? >>



No, it is a Norweb auction catalog.

cdwegner

Russ,

Do you think they don't take Pop into account when grading coins? I would hope they wouldn't, but it wouldn't surprise me either.

c

Barry

I wonder what kind of security they have at grading HQ?

Hope the graders have asked for more comfortable chairs since then, like an Aeron.

Russ

<< <i>Do you think they don't take Pop into account when grading coins? >>



Actually, with important coins, I think they do consider it - even though they likely wouldn't admit it. That's not the purpose of the computers at the grading desks, though. The process is slow enough now. Imagine how long submissions would take if they weren't entering the information as the coins are graded.

Russ, NCNE

lava

I understood that pops are taken into account. See D.Hall's recent post in the Q&A.

LAWMAN

Those are actually old pictures of the Manhattan Project which have recently been declassified.

Lakesammman

Last guy must be new. Still has 10 fingers. Sonic sealing must be noisy (note the headset).

Stuart

<< Sonic sealing must be noisy (note the headset). >>

Lakesammman: Your above deduction is correct. During the recent PCGS Invitational in Las Vegas, David Hall gave us a "virtual walkthrough" of the grading of a coin, and mentioned that the sonic sealing machine emits a very loud piercing sound (high pitch I think).

I think he said they call it the "Noise Room" or something similar to that...

mgoodm3

<< <i>Last guy must be new. Still ahs 10 fingers. Sonic sealing must be noisy (note the headset). >>



Maybe he's listening to Cool and the Gang's latest.

lava

Does anyone know why gloves aren't required?

kieferscoins

<< <i>Does anyone know why gloves aren't required? >>



It's harder to hold a coin and the chance of dropping it is higher.

Cameron Kiefer

relayer

Gloves aren't required because they found it was harder to handle the coins with gloves on.

They have a felt pad on the desk in case a coin is dropped, but they said they dropped more coins when wearing gloves and the coins were harder to handle.

coinkat

No cubicals for those graders?? I am impressed!

Stuart

There's another grader photo in this: Behind the Scenes at PCGS Article Link

airplanenut

<< <i>I understood that pops are taken into account. See D.Hall's recent post in the Q&A. >>

Here's the post

I take that to mean that on the low pop coins that are rare, more graders look at them, because they're worth more... makes sense to me.

Jeremy

JrGMan2004

I remember going to a show where PCI was set-up and grading on site... I felt sorry for the guys on that side of the room, every couple minutes there'd be a high pitched noise... It was really annoying... and gave me (and probally more than a few dealers) a headache...

Conder101

ACG's use of the sonic sealer at their table at shows was one of the reasons they were banned by several of the large shows. First they were forced to the back of the room and then eventually denied a table at all. The sealing machine produces a loud piercing screech.

geb209

Independent? My god, they're sitting right next to each other. "Hey Joe, I see this one as a 64. You agree? BTW, ignore that NGC MS64 holder that it's in."

Shamika

"At the risk of sounding dumb... What does "sonically sealed" mean? How do they seal a slab with soundwaves?"

If the frequency and intensity are strong enough, you'd be shocked what sound can do. Ultrasonic welding is a very fast and inexpensive approach to joining two separate pieces of plastic together. The sound emitted from such devices isn't particularly lound, but it is so high pitched that it almost hurts to hear it IF you can hear it (think dog whistle).

braddick

<< <i><< Sonic sealing must be noisy (note the headset). >> Lakesammman: Your above deduction is correct. During the recent PCGS Invitational in Las Vegas, David Hall gave us a "virtual walkthrough" of the grading of a coin, and mentioned that the sonic sealing machine emits a very loud piercing sound (high pitch I think). I think he said they call it the "Noise Room" or something similar to that... >>

Grader to himself: "Let's see. What to do? What to do? How in the name of all that is good can I get that loud, high pitch machine to stop? Hmmm.... what ::cough:: bodybag! ::cough:: to do. . .

farthing

I believe that is a complete grading set of sample slabs in the first picture!

ms70

I remember DH once posted that it makes the coins too difficult to handle and that the graders are "very careful" about fingerprints.

jacktheknife

The first picture shows how they INDEPENDENTLY grade the coins. You know darn well that they talk amongst themselves about the nicer coins. A coin is either "talked up" or "talked down". I can just hear it, "Hey Bill, check out this beauty, it's a 67 all day long. But, I'll let you decide INDEPENDENTLY when I pass the coin over to you."

BigE

Anyone know who the three graders are?---------BigE

Craton

<< <i>ACG's use of the sonic sealer at their table at shows was one of the reasons they were banned by several of the large shows. First they were forced to the back of the room and then eventually denied a table at all. The sealing machine produces a loud piercing screech. >>



Yep, I have heard their screech machine before as well.

GoldCoinLover

High intensity/high frequency soundwaves can also shatter glass, if the pitch is high enough. Now that's

Conder101

<< <i>The sound emitted from such devices isn't particularly lound, but it is so high pitched that it almost hurts to hear it IF you can hear it (think dog whistle). >>


I find dog whistles to be very loud and quite annoying.

bushmaster8

Maybe I can get a job in the sealing room. I don't hear anything above 4KHz! When I was growing up, it was not widely known that shooting firearms causes cumulative hearing impairment. Funny though, I can still hear my wifes screeching and thats way above 4KHz. I guess when your talking 150 decibles, all bets are off!

Proof

<< <i>Anyone know who the three graders are?---------BigE >>




Contoursi, Hall, and Dorkarl.

MrDan

<< <i>Anyone know who the three graders are?---------BigE >>




It's the pep boys! (larry curly and moe) The auto parts industry hasn't been very good to them and they have been forced to take other jobs in a perpetually black and white world.

ChuckC

I thought I'd share this pic for an old 1998 "COINage" magazine I just unearthed

ER

Man, that 's got to be one of the most boring jobs in the world.

F117ASR

I wonder how much the workers make in a year

badger

We use ultrasonic welding in our operations. The ultrasonic horn vibrates at high frequency and rubs the plastic parts together. The friction at the localized contact points cause the plastic to melt and weld. This is done without increasing the overall temperature of the part. The high pitched sound comes from the vibrating horn - like a tuning fork gone beserk.

eyoung429

knowing from my past work experience, I can see where maybe the new spots and toning can come from. If you resonate any material, any foriegn material that is either statically (ie electrically) or adhered (via moisture,oil,or liquid substance) would vibrate at an entirely different rate causing either relocation or dislodging the foriegn material from the parent substance and moving it to a different location in the "sealed environment". Wouldn't this cause new toning or new carbon spots to show after the coin has been sealed? Not to mention the amount of detris,dust,lint.....etc. that would be encapsulated with the coin. It isn't a "white room" environment, but could explain a lot of the post-sealed errors that may occur.

Just my .02

Shamika

<< <i>I wonder how much the workers make in a year >>



$250,000/year. This has been discussed before.