08-18-2006, 06:30 AM
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Administrator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Central CT
Age: 28
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Coin Grading
Grading coins is an art and a science and takes a trained eye to get an exact grade. But, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to get a general idea of what condition any given coin is worth.
Most coins are graded on a scale of 0-70, 0 being identifiable as a coin, and 70 being a perfect example of the coin it represents. Dependsing on the coin release, these numbers may be represented as "MS70" or "PR70" to denote its Mint State (business strike) or Proof release. The main grading levels and their common numeric grades are as follows:
A note about grading services, before I go on. Don't be fooled by "encapsulation services" that are so lenient on grading that a majority of their coins are in 70 condition. If you want to get your high quality coin graded, there are 2 places you should go- PCGS and NGC. That's it. All the rest are a waste of money and your coin won't hold half the market value is its encapsulated by another service. Unless your coin is in extremely good condition, or is ultra rare, grading it is probably not worth it. Each coin costs about $30 to get graded and takes almost a month. This leads to grading moderate coins a "owners eye" system, and like always, the seller can easily inflate a mid-grade coin and call it something it's not, and thus increase it's worth. Therefore, it is imperitive that you have some knowledge about what you are buying and how to spot a coins condition. There are many guides with pictures available on the net, so I won't even attempt to re-create that here. Here are a couple links to get you started:
Acronyms used in Coin Collecting |
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