Put the coin under light
Shoot straight down, fill the frame, one light source from the side. Raking light is what makes doubling readable.
Raw. Pinch or scroll to zoom, drag to pan, double-tap to reset.
Photo readings
Measured from your photo, not from the coin. Lighting, white balance and focus move these numbers, so treat them as evidence rather than a verdict — and shoot two coins the same way if you want to compare them. The actual grade comes from the wear-point ladder on the Identify tab; these readings cross-check your answers.
About this coin
What to hunt today
Ten coins worth checking right now
PCGS's own list of the rarities still turning up in circulation. Tap any one to jump to its listing and see exactly where to look.
Reading the filters
Simulates rolling the coin under a lamp. A true doubled die is a second full relief — rounded, the same height as the main design, casting its own shadow. Machine doubling is a flat shear, a shelf sitting lower than the device with no shadow of its own. Sweep the Angle slider: real doubling stays a shape, a shelf flickers and vanishes.
Sobel outlines. A doubled die gives two complete closed outlines per letter, serifs and all. Machine doubling gives one outline plus a stray parallel line on one side only.
Turn the flash off — direct flash flattens relief, which is the exact thing you are trying to read. Use a desk lamp at a low angle instead. Tap to lock focus, hold the phone parallel to the coin, and get as close as your lens will focus. On iPhone, Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible saves as JPEG, which every device can open.
Is it real, and what grade?
Most "errors" are damage that happened after the coin left the Mint. This walks through it in plain language before you get excited.
The find log
Every coin you photograph, with its attribution, verdict and status — and, if you fill them in, what you paid, where it is kept and what it is worth. Stored on this device. Nothing leaves your phone and there is nothing to subscribe to; export regularly so you have a copy.
Known varieties by date
Punch in what's on the coin. Every listing carries its real catalog numbers — Cherrypickers' (FS), Wexler (WDDO/WDDR), CONECA and Crawford — so you can name the variety exactly.
What it's worth, and what you keep
Four calculators that decide whether a coin is worth your time: what the error adds, what the metal is worth, whether grading pays, and what a sale actually nets.
The error field guide
What each error actually is, why it happens, and what it does to the value.
Start here
Scouting America merit badge
The sixty-second check
Parts of a coin
Strike & condition rarity
Getting started well
Key dates by series
Storage & handling
Measuring without tools
Spotting fakes
How the scan works
Reading attribution numbers
Doubling — the whole confusion
Die errors
Planchet & striking errors
Not errors
Weight check
A $12 jeweler's scale settles more questions than a loupe does. Wrong-metal and transitional errors are found by weight, not by eye — a 1983 cent that weighs 3.11 g instead of 2.50 g is a four-figure coin.
| Coin | Years | Composition | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cent | 1909–1942 | Bronze | 3.11 g |
| Cent | 1943 | Zinc-coated steel | 2.70 g |
| Cent | 1944–1982 | Brass / bronze | 3.11 g |
| Cent | 1982–now | Copper-plated zinc | 2.50 g |
| Nickel | 1866–now | Cupro-nickel | 5.00 g |
| Nickel | 1942–1945 | 35% silver "war nickel" | 5.00 g |
| Dime | 1946–1964 | 90% silver | 2.50 g |
| Dime | 1965–now | Copper-nickel clad | 2.27 g |
| Quarter | 1932–1964 | 90% silver | 6.25 g |
| Quarter | 1965–now | Copper-nickel clad | 5.67 g |
| Half | 1964 | 90% silver | 12.50 g |
| Half | 1965–1970 | 40% silver | 11.50 g |
| Half | 1971–now | Copper-nickel clad | 11.34 g |
| Sac / Pres. dollar | 2000–now | Manganese-brass clad | 8.10 g |
1942–45 war nickels replaced nickel with silver but kept the same 5.00 g target weight.
Getting a client's coin verified
Where to verify
This app's listings are cross-referenced against these. When a coin looks real, go to the source, match the die markers, then submit.
whitman.com — the FS numbers. The book is the standard; there is no full free online edition.
conecaonline.org — the error-variety club; attribution service and the DDO/DDR/RPM master listings.
lincolncentresource.com — free cross-reference of FS / Wexler / CONECA / Crawford numbers per cent variety.
pcgs.com/coinfacts — population data and auction records for the FS-numbered varieties.
Coin Powers
The kit
Tell someone
How this app makes money
Business console
Partner console
En español
How to read the values here. Every figure is a rough retail range for a problem-free coin and moves with grade and market. A raw coin is worth a fraction of a certified one — the money is only real once PCGS, NGC, or ANACS has attributed it.
What this app is. A measuring instrument and a reference, not an oracle. It sharpens what your eye can see and tells you exactly where to look and what to call it. The call is still yours, and a grading service's after that.
At a coin show, with no signal. Every measurement and every lookup in this app runs on your device: the triage, the relief probe, the grading ladder, the variety database, the folders, the want list, the weight check, the strike-designation prompts, the value maths and your whole log. Four things need a connection and all four are links out — auction archives, PCGS lookups, the grading services, and the metal spot price. When you are offline the app says so and parks any link you tap on a check-later list instead of failing.
There is nothing to subscribe to. No account, no monthly fee, no locked features, no upsell at the moment you find something. The variety database, the probe, the folders, the value tools and unlimited log records are the app — not a trial of it. Your records live on your device and export in one tap to a file you own, so you are never renting access to your own collection.
Back it up. No account and no cloud is what keeps your collection private, and the price of that is that a lost phone is a lost collection. Back up on the Log tab writes one file holding everything — coins, photos, comps, folders, want list, checklists and calibration — and Restore puts it all back on a new device. The app tells you how long it has been since you last did it, because a backup nobody remembers to make is not a backup.
Coin Powers · records are stored in this browser on this device. Back up from the Log tab to keep a copy.