Grade language is the shortest conversation in numismatics: two letters and a number stand in for a paragraph about wear, lustre, marks and eye appeal. Learn to unpack it and auction descriptions, catalogue columns and slab labels stop being opaque. This is a vocabulary guide — what the words mean when other people use them; the coin-terms glossary covers the rest of the hobby's vocabulary. Nothing here, and nothing on this site, grades your coin.
Where grade words come from — and the 1–70 scale
Two systems run side by side. The older one is adjectival: words like Good, Very Fine and Uncirculated describe wear bands, and British-market catalogues still lean on them. The newer one is numeric: NGC describes the 1-to-70 scale as the internationally accepted Sheldon scale, first used in the United States in the late 1940s and adopted by NGC when it began operating in 1987. Under it, a coin's condition is expressed as a number that rises as condition improves. NGC: Grading Scale
The codes you meet fuse the two systems. "VF30" is the adjectival band Very Fine refined to the number 30; "AU58" is About Uncirculated at the top of its range. Some numbers are skipped entirely below 60 — the published scale uses set points such as 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 53, 55, 58, and then every integer from 60 to 70. So a listing's "VF35" is not a score out of 100; it is a named position on a fixed ladder. NGC: Grading Scale
Circulated adjectival grades: Good through About Uncirculated
Below the no-wear line, every band is a statement about how much of the original surface survives. At the bottom, NGC's published scale defines PO 1 as a coin with just enough detail to identify its date and type, and G 4 as one whose peripheral lettering is nearly full while the rims show wear. Very Good and Fine mark progressively more surviving detail — F 12 still has sharp letters and digits. Very Fine is the "complete but softened" band: NGC defines VF 20 as moderate design detail with sharp lettering. NGC: Grading Scale
At the top of the circulated range, Extremely Fine means wear confined to the design's highest points — XF 45 is described as complete details with minor wear on some high points — and About Uncirculated is the almost-made-it band: AU 58, the highest circulated grade, shows slight wear on the highest points with full details otherwise. The thread through all of it is where the wear is and how much detail survived it — which is why grade descriptions in catalogues talk about rims, lettering and high points rather than "shininess". NGC: Grading Scale
The words-to-numbers ladder
Heavy wear; identification survives
Moderate wear; detail remains readable
Wear only on the high points
No wear; the number measures surface quality
Editorial summary of a published scale; it assigns no grade to any coin. Evidence: NGC: Grading Scale.
Mint State and the MS numbers
Above 60 the question changes. Mint State — NGC's MS strike-type code, applied to coins struck in the format of circulation issues at grades 60 through 70 — means no trace of wear. What the numbers then grade is surface quality: MS 60 has no wear but numerous abrasions, hairlines or large marks; the rungs climb through "moderate" marks at MS 63 and "minimal" at MS 66 to MS 70, which NGC defines as no post-production imperfections even at five-times magnification. NGC: Grading Scale
Two consequences follow. An MS number is about marks and lustre, not age or beauty — a fresh-from-the-mint coin can sit at 61 while a 200-year-old survivor that never circulated reaches the same range. And Mint State is a different category from Proof: PF is the code for collector-format strikes (the finish-labels guide separates the manufactured finish from the condition grade riding beside it). NGC: Grading Scale
What ‘details grade’ and problem coins mean
Some coins can't take a number at all. NGC explains that coins with surface problems — improper cleaning, holes, scratches, corrosion and similar issues — are ineligible for numeric grading and instead receive "details" grading: an adjectival grade based on wear, with the surface problem described on the label. "XF Details — Cleaned" means Extremely Fine wear, plus a cleaning problem serious enough to bar a number. The surface-problems guide covers what those labels name on the coin itself. NGC: Details Grading
In listings, treat a details description as two honest facts: the wear level, and a named problem that a professional service considered significant. It is not a euphemism to skim past — it is the part of the label that most affects what the coin is. The value guide explains how condition caveats dominate any price question.
Why two people can disagree on a grade
A grade is a judgment applied to a standard, not a measurement off a gauge. The numeric points have published definitions, but applying them means weighing strike, marks, lustre and eye appeal — NGC's own scale includes genuinely subjective elements such as eye appeal, which it describes as the most subjective attribute of a coin. Two qualified graders can look at the same coin and land a point apart, and the same coin resubmitted can come back differently; grading is a learned judgment, which is why the American Numismatic Association, the US nonprofit collector-education body, teaches it through dedicated grading courses. NGC: Grading Scale, ANA: Summer Seminar course catalog
For a buyer the lesson is compact: a seller's grade word is a claim, a slab's number is one service's opinion, and neither is chemistry. The professionals guide covers what third-party grading does — and costs — when the number actually matters.
What a photo can never settle
Grading leans on exactly the evidence a photograph destroys: lustre read by tilting the coin under light, hairlines visible only at certain angles, depth of strike in the recesses, and the overall eye appeal that graders weigh deliberately. A flat-lit photo flattens lustre, hides hairlines, and can flatter or punish a coin by accident.
Even the profession's own photo tool says so: PCGS publishes Photograde as a way to estimate a coin's approximate grade by comparison with photographs — approximate is its own framing, and estimating is not assigning. So use comparison photographs to understand what the published terms mean; leave judging where a particular coin sits to a grading service or qualified professional, especially when the grade will decide real money. PCGS: Photograde
Questions people ask
Is MS63 better than AU58?
It is higher on the same ruler — 63 exceeds 58 — but the two measure different things: AU58 is a barely circulated coin with full detail, while MS63 is an unworn coin with moderate marks. Many collectors prefer a clean AU58's look to a heavily bagged low Mint State piece; the number orders coins, it does not choose between them.
Do "UNC" and "MS" mean the same thing?
Same territory, different dialects. "Uncirculated" is the adjectival no-wear band; "MS" is the numeric scale's Mint State code for grades 60–70. A UK catalogue may say UNC where a US slab would say MS62.
What does "GEM" or "choice" mean in a listing?
Seller shorthand for the prettier end of Mint State, and the two words are not interchangeable: in grading-service adjective convention "Choice" sits around MS63 and "Gem" around MS65 — PCGS's own grade vocabulary pairs the numbers that way. On a listing, though, they remain emphasis rather than a certified grade, so if a number matters look for a grading-service holder's actual designation rather than a descriptive adjective.
Why do graded coins in the same grade sell for different prices?
The grade is one input to value, not the price itself — issue rarity, demand, eye appeal and the grading service's standing all move the number. The value-drivers guide unpacks the rest of the equation.
Does Coin Says Hi grade my coin?
Never. A possible photo reading describes a match candidate and visible clues; it does not authenticate, grade or assess condition, and nothing in a reading is a grade claim. If a grade will drive a purchase, sale or insurance decision, that is what grading services exist for. Try it on your coin.
Sources and scope
NGC's grading-scale page supports the Sheldon 1–70 origin, the strike-type codes, the adjectival-to-numeric mapping, the per-grade definitions quoted here, the 70-at-5x definition, and the eye-appeal subjectivity. NGC's details-grading page supports the problem-coin mechanism and vocabulary. PCGS's Photograde page supports the approximate-grade-by-photograph framing, and PCGS's published grade vocabulary is the conventional basis for pairing "Choice" with MS63 and "Gem" with MS65; the cited URLs are PCGS's canonical pages. The ANA's Summer Seminar course catalog supports the grading-is-taught-formally point. Grade scales vary by country and era — adjectival conventions dominate older and British references, numeric grades the modern US certification market — and assigning a grade is professional judgment, which this guide deliberately does not perform. Sources last checked 2026-10-01.
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