I draw on my over 30 years' experience of grading coins in addition to using the "Official A.N.A Grading Standards", "Brown & Dunn Grading Guide", and "Photograde by James F. Ruddy" reference books. I try to be as accurate with my grading as is possible for several reasons: I want you to be happy and be a repeat customer; I want you to be happy and tell other collectors about me and my web-site; I want you to be happy if and when you want to sell the coin back to me in the future and I can base my offer on the same grade I gave the coin when I sold it to you. Customer satisfaction is important to both you and me!
Grading is very subjective and can vary on the same coin from person to person. That's one of the reasons the grading/slabbing services were created, and one of the reasons why there is more than one grading/slabbing service. In most, if not all, cases the coins are graded by two or more "graders" before a grade is assigned to the coin and it is slabbed. If those grades aren't the same, then the coin is examined and graded again until an agreement is reached, or another expert for that coin series is sought to determine the final grade assignment and the coin is then slabbed.
I'm not promoting grading services in general or one over another here. I'm just explaining their process and one of the reasons for their existence.
Some people prefer raw coins to slabbed coins and there is nothing wrong with that as long as they have the reference books to go by and some experience grading coins. You don't have to rely on someone else to grade your coins if you prefer not to. There is plenty of room for both kinds of collectors in this hobby.
It's sometimes difficult for two experts to look at the same coin and come to agreement on the grade, especially the numerical grade range within a given descriptive grade. An example of this is the descriptive grade of "About Uncirculated" or "A. U.". The numerical range for that descriptive grade is "A.U. 50" through "A. U. 58", usually presented as "A. U. 50", "A. U. 53", "A. U. 55", or "A. U. 58". The grading services use those numeric representations as do most dealers, but sometimes we prefer to use the "+" sign after the descriptive grade, indicating that the grade is better than the low-end "A. U. 50" for example, but don't want to split hairs and will price the coin accordingly. Another method we sometimes use is giving the numeric range divided by a "/", for example "A. U. 53/55" if we can't make up our mind or want you, the collector, to know that it's at least an "A. U. 53" but maybe even better.
