Has anyone entered one of these?
PCGS has been doing coin grading contests at major coin shows across the country for a few years now. How it works: you test your grading skills by guessing the grades of 20 coins. Whoever gets the most right wins.
I went to the Long Beach show a couple years ago, hoping to compete. I had the PCGS Photograde app for my phone & spent many hours studying every pic of every denomination from half cents to $20 gold. When I got there, I was pretty bummed when I found out they had canceled it.
Fast forward two years...
PCGS posts on their website that they'll be doing a grading contest in Long Beach again this year. So back to studying coins I go - this time not only the app, but PCGS set registry photos, ebay & Heritage auction photos, and every PCGS coin at every coin shop in town - anything I could find in a PCGS holder.
The show arrives and I finally get my 30 minutes to test my skills acquired not only over the last couple months but 25 years as a collector. I was in awe at how challenging it was. Based on previous contests, I figured it would be mostly silver dollars and gold, but ended up having to grade just about everything: a half cent, proof buffalo nickel, a Washington quarter, Indian cents, a few tough to grade toned dollars, gold - you name it it was in the contest. I left feeling I didn't do well, and after a couple weeks w/out hearing from PCGS, I figured I had no shot.
Then yesterday, got an email:
"Congrats on winning the coin grading contest..."
Cha-Ching! $1000.
PCGS has been doing coin grading contests at major coin shows across the country for a few years now. How it works: you test your grading skills by guessing the grades of 20 coins. Whoever gets the most right wins.
I went to the Long Beach show a couple years ago, hoping to compete. I had the PCGS Photograde app for my phone & spent many hours studying every pic of every denomination from half cents to $20 gold. When I got there, I was pretty bummed when I found out they had canceled it.
Fast forward two years...
PCGS posts on their website that they'll be doing a grading contest in Long Beach again this year. So back to studying coins I go - this time not only the app, but PCGS set registry photos, ebay & Heritage auction photos, and every PCGS coin at every coin shop in town - anything I could find in a PCGS holder.
The show arrives and I finally get my 30 minutes to test my skills acquired not only over the last couple months but 25 years as a collector. I was in awe at how challenging it was. Based on previous contests, I figured it would be mostly silver dollars and gold, but ended up having to grade just about everything: a half cent, proof buffalo nickel, a Washington quarter, Indian cents, a few tough to grade toned dollars, gold - you name it it was in the contest. I left feeling I didn't do well, and after a couple weeks w/out hearing from PCGS, I figured I had no shot.
Then yesterday, got an email:
"Congrats on winning the coin grading contest..."
Cha-Ching! $1000.
