Poll Question: Which innovation in numismatics do you feel has most impacted the field?

Number one on my list is the Sheldon Scale, with the second being the Red Book. Both work closely together to form an excellent way of grading and placing your item in the most proper and ethical way possible. With these tools, among others, I feel I am the closest to a third-party grader. I know it's not the best, but it's close.

Roger Quintana M.ED/M.CJA, Idaho.

The biggest innovation in coins for me has been the advent of the reverse proof. It's not a new invention since proof coins have been around since the 80s, at least. But having the fields frosted and the image being mirrored has turned the same art on its nose. The image is turned around and seen from a different perspective by the same viewer. It was innovative and popular as a choice for coins that have (in some instances) become staid and have given them a second life.

Mark Woodward, Address withheld

Third-Party Certification Services have had the greatest impact on Numismatics in the past four decades. Third-party authentication has had the greatest positive impact on Numismatics. Collectors can make acquisitions of certified coins with reasonable confidence that they are not buying counterfeits. This is a great improvement over pre-certification days when coins were frequently altered to appear as key dates.

The benefit of authentication has been partially offset by fake certification holders, which seem to surface with greater frequency as coin values increase.
Thankfully, certification services work hard to help the public detect fake holders. Coin dealers are occasionally fooled by fakes, but they are the best Numismatists to detect them.

Third-party grading has not had as positive an impact as authentication. When certification is conducted by honest and qualified graders, great service is provided to collectors such that they are able to buy accurately graded coins at fair prices.
Unfortunately, not all grading services have provided consistent opinions. When shenanigans occurred, some buyers suffered substantial financial losses upon the purchase and resale of incorrectly graded coins. Thus, the mantra "buy the coin, not the slab" has emerged as an absolute truth.

Numerous dubious opinions have impaired the credibility of grades appearing on holders. Not knowing how to grade and/or over-reliance on grades appearing on holders remains a significant financial hazard to the numismatist.

Third-party grading has enabled the proliferation of a greater number of grades, has increased the difficulty in determining an exact grade, and has made the assignment of value to individual Coins much more difficult. Grading Precision has never been more important.

For example, when applying the "buy the coin, not the slab" principle, can the average collector ascertain the difference between an MS-64 and an MS-65? The distinction between the two grades may not be noticeable to a novice. However, the difference in value is often substantial.

A novice often relies on the seller to represent the grading accuracy whether certified by a third party or not. While a coin in a holder greatly increases the probability that a coin is accurately graded, the seller's ethics vs personal interest may conflict.
Unfortunately for the hobby, imperfection in grading remains the biggest problem. Coin certification may cause overconfidence about grading accuracy, such as in sight-unseen purchases.

Perhaps Artificial Intelligence will eventually be used for coin certification. Even then, ways may be found to circumvent what will appear to be a perfect grading mechanism.

Knowledge of how to grade will always be an important key to engaging in Numismatics. So, every collector should learn how to grade, regardless of whether certified coins are exclusively acquired.

After the advent of third-party certification services, Mint State grading standards were changed by the services. When the standards were changed, the grade shown on all the previously certified Mint State Coins became obsolete. The coins in the obsolete holders probably have an assigned grade different from current standards and could have significantly different values from what the old holder grades indicate.
Some coin dealers specialize in buying under-graded certified coins and sending them to be certified again at a higher grade. They happily buy under-graded coins from uninformed sellers.

Bruce R Frohman, Modesto, Calif.

I would generally say two: grading services and the internet.

Name and Address withheld

Overall, the Internet has given millions of people access to tens of thousands of coins.

Roy Herbst, Address withheld

In my opinion, online auctions and online stores are by far technical innovations that have greatly positively impacted the world of numismatics.

Another innovation that greatly helps these innovations is the ability to take decent pictures by simply using a cell phone. I recall about five years ago helping a local coin dealer develop a quick and dirty way to take pictures while saving time with cropping and name filing. Good pictures bring confidence in either bidding or buying online. For example, you want to verify if a coin or a medal has been cleaned. A good picture will allow you to focus in and check it out.

Buying online also means facing shipping fees, sometimes very expensive shipping fees (I think here of eBay's international shipping fees), steep auction fees, and the risks of losing your parcel. Well, yes, indeed, it is risky to buy online, but the advantages, in my opinion, far outweigh the disadvantages. So much material is available at my fingertips. It is just too easy to spend too much money!

François Rufiange, Quebec City, Canada

I believe that the combination of coin grading along with the ability of the mint quality capabilities to make MS PROOF AND REVERSE PROOF coins that grade 70 is the biggest innovation today.

James Faulkerson, Hillsboro, Mo. 

TPG by far.

Name and Address withheld

A quick look at today's coins shows clearly that the high-speed coin press has had the greatest impact on our coinage. Unfortunately, this has had a negative impact.
The need for design compatibility with these high-speed presses has resulted in design simplification as well as bland, low-relief coinage across the board.
The high-speed press has also allowed the mint to change designs rapidly and produce so many new types and designs that the result is these designs have become trite and, therefore, meaningless.

The best example is the number of women now depicted on the reverse side of the quarter dollar. It could be guaranteed that nobody reading this response could name all of them nor cite how many different women have now appeared via the
numerous quarter-dollar "programs."

The high-speed press also required a brushed or sandblast finish on the centennial dollar roll-out of the Morgan and Peace Dollars, not the mirrored fields disappointed collectors had anticipated.

George Kissinger, Address withheld

In my opinion, the two best innovations were first, the third-party grading in the mid-1980s and second, CAC, which came 20+ years later. Until the mid-1980s, it was all about raw coins (other than ANACS certificates). With raw coins, collectors had three problems, all solved by TPGs with slabbing coins - authentication was now handled by experts. We receive an opinion on a grade that makes it so much easier to receive fair value when we (or our heirs) go to sell our coins, and we have a physical holder that helps those of us with the dropsies—fewer rim dings on our valuable coins. With CAC, they made it even better for collectors, identifying coins that, in their opinion, are solid for the grade and have not had surface treatments that, in their opinion, are unacceptable, even though the TPG finds those surface treatments acceptable.

Steve Feiertag, Royal Palm Beach, Fla.