A regular at my shop in Boise swore by a 30 cent coin to check grind, and it actually works
I kept getting uneven shots with my old hand grinder and could never figure out why. He told me to compare the grounds to a dime, and the difference in size was obvious once I saw it side by side, so now I check every new bag that way. Anyone else use a random object to eyeball their grind?
The dime trick makes sense for spot checking but the real issue with hand grinders is usually burr wobble, not the grind size itself. If your burrs are loose or off center you'll get a mix of big and small pieces no matter where you set it, and a coin won't show you that. A cheap magnifying glass or even your phone camera zoomed in will tell you way more about whether the grind is even.