The Official Guide to Coin Grading and Counterfeit Detection, 2nd Edition

THE GUIDE THAT EXPLAINS, ILUSTRATES, AND SETS THE STANDARD FOR GRADING UNITED STATES COINS

The world's largest and most prestigious coin grading organization has created an amazing, one-of-a-kind guide that reveals its grading and authentication secrets. From the introduction:

"By furnishing a simple yet detailed guide to grading coins, PCGS has made it easy to understand the number that appears on a grading holder. Reading this book will make you an expert."
– Jay W. Johnson, Former Director, United States Mint

This book illustrates and explains with precise descriptions and digital images how you can determine the exact condition of a coin. Here is a coin grading volume so complete that—like its author, PCGS—it indeed sets the standard for grading coins. Inside this illustrated guide you will find:

• The standards for grading all United States coins, including precise definitions of Mint State and circulated grades

• An all-new section on how to grade America's 50-State quarters

• The fundamentals of counterfeit detection

• The secrets of handling and storing your collection

• State-of-the-art techniques used to recognize 'doctored' coins

• Over 600 detailed illustrations

This detailed guide is the only book on the market that encompases so many facets of coin grading and counterfeit detection.

What an undertaking this book was -- 48 pages of gorgeous color, spectacular black-and-white images throughout, the grading standards of the Professional Coin Grading Service published in a book for the first time -- this is truly the book no serious coin collector can do without! I worked with the top names in coin grading on this one, and I basically had to just sit back and marvel at their expertise. This was a challenge to produce, but an incredible achievement.
-- Randy Ladenheim-Gil, Editor, House of Collectibles