When buying or selling coins and you understand grading as an important consideration, you will be on your path to success.
How your coin looks, it’s general feel and appearance is a pointer to if it can get paid for.
Coin grading is the process of assessing a coin’s condition to determine its approximate or actual value in the coin market.
Coin grading is a crucial and delicate part of coin selling, as it is the point at which a seller determines the actual or approximate value of their coin.
The process of grading a coin requires a lot of experience and expertise to correctly make a fair, informed and honest valuation of how much you can pay for or earn from a particular coin of interest.
Coin grading is done by an experienced coin collector, coin dealer, or expert/professional appraiser.
Once you have acquired a particular coin of interest, you may find it advisable to grade it yourself first, so you have an overall view and a sense of what to expect when you take it to an expert for professional grading.
How To Grade Coins :-
Grading coins is not an easy task, as it requires a lot of practice, experience, and tactics.
You will need a strong magnifying glass to get a clear view of your coin.
A strong, bright light source will also be very helpful during this activity.
Once you have set yourself up for the activity, you may then be in a good position if you know what you are looking for on your coin.
Below is what you are required to keep an eye on and look out for on your coin when grading.
- Contact Marks: Check for Hairlines, which are minute scratches on the coin’s surface caused by contact with abrasive materials. Scrutinise the coin’s rim, edge and surface for any cuts, nicks, notches or any other form of wear.
- Preservation: Check the coin for any visible signs of excessive polishing, cleaning, poor storage, or alterations.
- Lustre: This is the sheen or soft shine on the surface of a newly minted coin. When the coin is rotated under a single light source, the light’s reflection will spin and dance across the coin’s surface. Be extra vigilant to observe whether the coins’ lustre is still bright or has dulled.
- Eye Appeal: This is the overall look and feel of the coin. It is how all the aspects of a coin come together to give it an eye-popping, breathtaking look that carries away a coin collector’s mind and heart.
Once you have checked and rechecked your coin, the other fact to keep in mind is to be aware of where to place your coin on the grading ladder.
Coin collecting is a universal activity that has participants from all walks of life worldwide.
Due to this fact, professional coin collectors, scholars and researchers led by Dr. William H. Sheldon came up with an idea to unify the grading systems of different collectors.
The Sheldon Coin Grading Scale :-
To achieve common ground and agreement among coin collectors worldwide, the Sheldon Scale was adopted to standardise the assessment of a coin’s condition, a key indicator of its value and eventual price in the coin market.
The Sheldon Coin Grading Scale is a 70-point scale that describes the condition of coins from the poorest to the best.
Below is a shortened version indicating the main grades of the scale.
- Poor – 1 :- Coin is barely identifiable.
- Fair – 2 :- Coin is fairly and thinly identifiable.
- Good – 4 :- Most details on the coin are worn flat. Most inscriptions are not visible.
- Very Good – 8 :- Design is worn out, but has some visible detail, and it is not flat. Legends are a bit clearer.
- Fine – 12 :- While wear is noticeable, most legends are still clear. This is the first grade typically considered as pleasant to look at if not desirable.
- Very Fine – 20 :- The wear on the coin begins receding to finer points. Most of the low-level details are intact.
- Extremely / Extra Fine – 40 : Coin still has light wear, but all details and writings are sharp and clear. This is the first grade that coins still have a Lustre on them.
- About Uncirculated – 50 :- At this level of grading, wear is basically a trace element. Other grading criteria, like Lustre, take over. The lustre here is half visible.
- Uncirculated – 60 :- All Lustre is fully visible and available.
- Perfect Uncirculated – 70 :- This is the epitome of coin collecting. Also called Mint State with no wear and having full Lustre.
The Sheldon Coin Grading Scale is a very important and helpful tool, as it provides a level playing field for all coin collectors when assessing a coin’s value.
Generally speaking, depending on the market demand of a particular coin, it is safe to say that a grade 70 coin will be seventy times more valuable than a grade 1 coin on the Sheldon Coin Grading Scale.
