Others say...

"Lots of Information--where it matters least"
I've had this book for years. And yes, while it's a very good guide for grading coins in the inferior grades; and as someone mentioned, even many ten year old kids can do this--those aren't the grades that most often matter much with regards to US coins.

For example, a well known mail order coin company has a 1923 Mercury dime for sale, right now, for $8.75 in the grade of good--which is probably a bit much, for one of the lowest possible coin grades. On Ebay, the same coin in "choice BU" (and no one knows what that means exactly particualrly not on ebay), appears, for sale, and to be a roughly MS-60 coin. It can be "bought now" for $50 bucks. So that's the range that Photograde handles--Almost Good, to Brilliant Uncirculated. A range which varies from $5 - $50 on this particular, common date Mercury dime.

Now that same dime however, has sold recently at auction for $500 in MS66, $1800 in MS67, and a whopping $12,500 in MS68!

In other words, unless you're a kid collecting out of your lawn mowing proceeds, the real issue nine times out of ten; on most coins after 1850), isn't whether or not a coin rates VF or F, it's all about the 10 different grades from MS60--MS70.

It's frankly amazing to me that there isn'tt a good guidebook published by PCGS or ANACS, that can do in text form, what these organizations pretend to do every day of the year behind closed doors--determine grades of uncirculated and proof coins.

Such a book would be relatively expensive, maybe $50-$100 or more. But for people who collect coins at least in part as investments, this amount is barely significant in terms of what it would mean to teh collector.

Photograde? It's a decent enough compendium, but you can go online and get most of their grading criteria, with better pictures, for free. The book is sadly out of date IMO, in the sense that it still treats coin grade divisions, much as they were treated 30 years ago.

"Highly recommended guide."
Now in an updated nineteenth edition, Photograde: Official Photographic Grading Guide for United States Coins is a handy guide for coin collectors and dealers. More than 1,000 black-and-white obverse and reverse coin photographs clearly show the visual distinctions to look for when grading currency, and the easy-to-understand terms and grading descriptions make Photograde a snap to use for beginners and advanced graders alike. Special chapters on counterfeits and how to value, clean, retone, and store coins round out this highly recommended guide.

"Good, but not complete."
This book is considered the standard reference for grading coins. It's very well done with B&W images and descriptions, but only covers coin grades up to AU50. If you collect MS grade coins, this book really won't be of much help to you.

"This was worthless"
The description was that of a photographic grading guide. Photographic to me means just that...actual photographs of the different grades. Every items was in black and white. Also, the grading stopped at AU. What happened to the uncirculated grades?

Anyone other than a novice will be extremely disappointed with this product.

"Photograde"
Since I primarily deal in and with ancient coins, this guide has proven to be a tremendous asset. The complexity of grading American coins has grown in recent years and this book has saved me hours of work, now that I have begun seller in the United Stateds coin market.