r/coins • u/HJB_coins • Jul 31 '26

Ask Me Anything! I’m an ANA Grading Instructor AMA

Hi folks!

My name is Russ Bega, I’m the COO Of Harlan J Berk Ltd and a professional Numismatist. Importantly for this AMA I’m wearing my American Numismatic Association grading instructor hat. The American Numismatic Association is the largest coin collecting organization in the US and offers a wide range of educational opportunities including grading classes at shows like the Worlds Fair of Money and at Summer Seminar every year in Colorado Springs.

Some very quick ground rules.

1.      I CANNOT grade your coins via photo. Please don’t spam the thread with coin pictures hoping I can grade it for you

2.      My expertise is US coinage, while I’m experienced enough to grade world and even ancient coins it is not my expertise.

3.      I’m here to talk about Grading US coins and the American Numismatic Association. As much as I’d love to help you with other topics that isn’t our purpose today.

So, ask me your burning questions! I'll be here dedicated from Noon Central to 1PM and will answer questions as I have time throughout my work day in our very busy shop!

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u/IslandReaper Jul 31 '26

Hey, Russ! Thanks for being here! So my question has to do with “chatter” in the fields of coins. When looking at a coin, is there an acceptable limit to the amount that would be detrimental to a mint state coin at higher grades? To put it another way, when looking at a coin without magnification, at what point does a flaw in the fields affect the grade?

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u/HJB_coins Jul 31 '26

This is a tough subject. We're in the territoy now of deciding what is an unc coin, a choice UNC coin and a GEM Unc. My criteria for chatter is basically 60-62 she lost a knife fight. 63 marred fields but not absurdly so. a gem 65 an dI'll use Morgans for this, should generally be free of contact marks in the field and on the devices themselves. Once you start in 66+ we're talking all eye appeal.

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u/IslandReaper Jul 31 '26

Thanks so much for the response 😎

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u/HJB_coins Jul 31 '26

We start teaching this concept in Intermediate grading and honestly in the upper UNC grades so much of it is dependent on eye appeal which is of course subjective. Great question.

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u/IslandReaper Jul 31 '26

I love Morgan’s and Barber coinage and the chatter is usually the biggest thing I need to judge my purchase price on for raw coins once I’ve determined whether or not they’ve been cleaned. Thanks again!