One of the best parts about being an appraiser is the privilege to see (and oftentimes touch) objects that have been significant parts of human history.  Ancient and historical coins are the best examples of this.  When you look at these coins, you can imagine how people would go about their daily lives in those beautiful, ancient civilizations that we only read about in books.  

Part of giving these coins the value they deserve is the grading and certification process.  Some coins have been around for hundreds of years, while others have existed way longer than that.  Coin collectors know just how important grading and certification is, especially nowadays when bodies such as the Numismatic Guaranty Corp, or NGC, have set the standard.

Grading and certification involve a number of processes such as determining a coin’s overall grade and analyzing the strike and surface of said coin on a five-point scale.  There are also a number of factors to consider such as the level of appearance, external damage, and design centering, to name a few.

However, it might interest some collectors to know that grading may be of more significance to modern rather than ancient coins.  This is because more modern coins are machine made, and have fewer differences in grade compared to hand-made ancient coins that could be of the same kind but have a different value.    

Also, it would do a collector and an apprentice appraiser good to remember that with a higher grade comes more scrutiny.