Coin tools
Coin grading: learn to judge condition with a quiz
Answer the ten questions to learn what a grader looks at. Your best score stays in this browser only; nothing is sent.
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Grading is the judgment of a coin’s condition: how much detail it has lost to wear, how much original shine is left, and how many marks and scratches it carries. Two coins of the same date and mint can differ in value many times over because of condition alone, which is why collectors pay attention to it and why private services sell an opinion sealed in a plastic holder. You do not need a service to make a first judgment. Wear starts on the highest points of the design, such as the cheek and hair of a portrait, and a coin that has never circulated keeps an unbroken luster that moves when you tilt it. Cleaning leaves fine lines and removes that surface for good. The quiz above trains those reflexes in ten questions written by this site. The small tool below then compares a grading fee with the difference grading might make, using your own figures, before you decide to send a coin anywhere.
Is grading worth the fee?
Grading could add
$5
| Value difference | $50 |
| Total cost of grading | $45 |
| Break-even graded value | $85 |
Type the fee schedule of the service you would use; the values you expect are your own estimate, not a quote.
Mintages, metals and prices read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
What a grader looks at
Every judgment of condition comes back to the same handful of points.
- Wear on the high points. The parts of the design that stand highest touch fingers and other coins first. On a portrait that is the cheekbone, the hair above the ear and the jaw; on a reverse, the top of a wing, a dome or a wheat stalk. The Mint’s anatomy of a coin names the parts of a coin, from the field to the rim.
- Luster. A freshly struck coin reflects light in a soft, moving sheen that comes from the metal flowing under the die. Circulation and cleaning break it into dull patches.
- Marks. Even coins that never circulated show small nicks from contact with other coins in bins and bags. Fewer and smaller marks mean a better grade.
- Strike. Some coins left the press with soft details, which is not wear. Telling the two apart takes practice, and the quiz shows the difference.
- Eye appeal. Even color and the absence of spots or scratches in prominent places.
Handling a coin that might matter
Hold a coin by its edge between thumb and finger, over a towel or a padded tray. Skin oils leave fingerprints that etch into copper over time, and a coin dropped on a hard floor picks up a rim nick. Store it in an inert holder or a paper envelope, never loose in a jar with other coins. These habits cost nothing and protect the one coin in a hundred that turns out to be worth keeping.
The worst thing to do to a coin is to make it look new. Silver polish, baking soda, vinegar and erasers all leave the surface scratched or etched. A coin that looks naturally old is worth more than the same coin made shiny.
When grading is worth the money
A graded coin is easier to sell at a distance, because the buyer trusts the holder more than a photograph. That benefit has a price: the service fee, two-way insured postage and weeks of waiting. It pays only for coins whose value depends heavily on condition, typically scarce dates and coins that never circulated. The tool below compares the fee with the value you expect before and after grading, using your own estimates. This site does not publish those values, because no free official source does.
Is grading worth the fee?
Grading could add
$5
| Value difference | $50 |
| Total cost of grading | $45 |
| Break-even graded value | $85 |
Type the fee schedule of the service you would use; the values you expect are your own estimate, not a quote.
Before any grading decision, check how many coins of that date and mint were struck in the coin value lookup, which reads the Bureau of the Mint tables. A coin from an issue of hundreds of millions rarely justifies a fee unless it shows an error, and the error coins guide lists the known ones.
Proofs, uncirculated sets and circulated coins
Coins from collector sets were never meant to circulate. A proof shows mirror-like fields and frosted design; an uncirculated set coin looks like a new circulating coin. Neither should be taken out of its original packaging if you want to keep its condition. Coins found in change, on the other hand, have almost always circulated, and their grade is a matter of how much they wore, not whether they wore. Many proofs carry an S, the mint mark of San Francisco, and the San Francisco figures in the Mint tables from 1965 include coins made for those sets.