Coin grading, in plain terms
A grade is a claim about surface, not just about wear. Here is the scale, what each step actually looks like, and why no photograph can settle it.
In the Buck index
Morgan DollarUnited States · 1878–1921 · Silver (.900) (.100 copper)$69 to $101
Walking Liberty HalfUnited States · 1916–1947 · Silver (.900)$29.25 to $43.53
Every coin price you will ever see is attached to a grade, and if you do not know which grade, the price means nothing. A Morgan Dollar can be worth $35 or $3,500 depending on where it sits on a scale that runs from 1 to 70.
The scale
Coins are graded on the Sheldon scale, 1 to 70, usually written with a letter prefix.
| Grade | Name | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| P-1 to FR-2 | Poor, Fair | Identifiable, barely. Date may be gone |
| G-4 | Good | Design flat, rim worn into the legend |
| VG-8 | Very Good | Major design visible, most detail gone |
| F-12 | Fine | Moderate wear, main features clear |
| VF-20 | Very Fine | Light wear on the high points |
| EF-40 | Extremely Fine | Slight wear, most detail sharp |
| AU-50 | About Uncirculated | Trace wear on the highest points only |
| MS-60 to MS-70 | Mint State | No wear at all. Graded on surface quality |
The interesting part is the top of the scale. From MS-60 up there is no wear to measure, so the grade is about surface: how many contact marks, how strong the lustre, how well the coin was struck. MS-63 to MS-65 is where most prices jump.
Lustre is the thing photographs cannot capture
Mint lustre is the cartwheel effect: tilt an uncirculated coin under a light and a band of brightness rotates across the fields. It comes from the flow lines left by the metal moving under the die, and it is destroyed by two things: circulation, and cleaning.
You cannot photograph it in a still image. This is the honest limit of every phone-based valuation, ours included: a photograph settles what the coin is, and it can settle roughly how worn it is, but it cannot settle the top half of the scale where the money is.
That is why Buck prints a range with a realistic low end rather than a single mint-state number. The mint-state number is the one that sells apps and the one that is almost never true of the coin you are holding.
Cleaning
Do not.
A cleaned coin is described as "cleaned" for the rest of its life, and the description comes with a discount of anywhere from 30% to 80%. Hairlines from a cloth, a dull unnatural brightness from a dip, a pinkish tone on copper: graders see all of it instantly, and none of it is reversible.
If a coin is genuinely dirty, and it might be valuable, the only safe action is to leave it alone and ask somebody who conserves coins professionally.
When it is worth paying for a grade
Third-party grading costs money per coin and takes weeks. It makes sense when:
- the coin is plausibly worth several hundred dollars or more
- the date is a known key and authenticity is a real question
- you intend to sell it to somebody who has never met you
It does not make sense for a $20 coin. The fee eats the coin.
