Grading contest set

How are your grading skills?

The Professional Coin Grading Service will hold a grading contest at the June Long Beach Expo.

If you win, you will receive a $1,000 check from PCGS.

Young Numismatists entries will vie for a top prize of a PCGS-certified Morgan silver dollar.

As the prizes indicate, this will be no casual affair where the only thing on the line is the right to brag.

No, this is formal.

PCGS says participants must register in advance and reserve a time slot to take the test.

Registration and testing will be held at the PCGS Coin Grading Contest booth, #1127, at the Long Beach Expo and will begin during dealer set-up on the afternoon of Wednesday, June and continue throughout the show from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday, June 4 and 5, and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 6.

There is also a little matter of an entry fee.

Dealers and adult collectors must pony up a $50 bill.

Young collectors 16 years of age and young can enter free of charge.

Adults will have to grade 20 coins in 20 minutes.

The pace of this “beat the clock” test is slower for youngsters.

They will be given 20 minutes to grade 10 coins.

“Based on previous PCGS Grading Contests, we anticipate the available entry space will fill up quickly. So, I encourage everyone thinking about entering to promptly register so they don’t miss out on this exciting way to test their grading skills,” said Don Willis, PCGS president.

To register, telephone PCGS Customer Service at (800) 447-8848, Monday through Friday between 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.

Get going. Enter now.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper is winner of the 2014 Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."