Does your family have an old coin collection that’s been passed from generation to generation? Or have you ever found a buried stash of coins while out in nature on a hike or while metal detecting? These are two common scenarios that could result in you looking at an old coin and wondering what in the world you have in your possession and lead you to the world of numismatics.
Numismatics is the study of currency, including coin collecting. People enjoy collecting coins for many reasons: their artistic value, historical connections, value as a long-term investment, or as a family heirloom. No matter an individual’s reason for getting into numismatics, one crucial aspect remains the same: grading.
No matter your reason for collecting or the size of your collection, understanding coin grading is vital. What to learn what it means to coin grades, how grading works, and why it matters for your collection? Read on!
What Coin Grading Means
As you might guess, “grading” refers to assessing and rating a coin’s quality or condition. To grade a coin, a numismatist examines its physical attributes and rates it based on these criteria:
- Luster
- Strike strength
- Surface wear
- Overall appearance
Based on the factor above, a coin is assigned a score on a scale between 1 and 70, known as the Sheldon Coin Grading system. The lower the number, the lower the grade while 70 represents an ideal mint condition coin. This scale is based on the concept that a mint condition coin is 70 times more valuable than its lowest-graded counterpart.
How Grading Works
Coins are graded by trained professionals who are recognized as independent and unbiased. The PC GS or N GC are two trustworthy professional grading companies. Collectors can pay a fee to have their coin examined, graded, and returned in a tamper-evident plastic case. These companies will also provide a certification of the coin’s grade.
The grading system was created as a way to give coin collectors a common language to describe the condition of their collections. Instead of having to give a detailed description of a coin’s luster, strike, or physical condition, they simply had to say its score on the Sheldon Scale.
The Importance of Grading
Perhaps the most important reason to have the coins in your collection graded is to help establish their value. Along with its rarity, a coin’s score on the Sheldon Scale will be the biggest factor in setting its value on the market.
Grading also establishes trust in a private sale between collectors because it has been independently verified and certified to be in a specific condition. In fact, just having a coin graded at all can significantly impact its monetary value.
Professional coin grading, like that offered by PCGS or NGC, helps safeguard buyers against forged or counterfeit coins. Like in any collectibles market, forgeries and counterfeits are an issue. Grading companies test the coin’s metal composition, weight, dimensions, and design details in order to weed out fakes and protect both buyers and sellers.
Grading a coin will tell you not just the coin’s condition and monetary value, but what coin it is, its history, and its rarity as well. However, grading costs money so it might not be right for every coin. Now that you understand what coin grading is, how it works, and why it’s important you can decide whether grading is right for your collectible coins.
