Why does VF and AU have more recognized grading levels?

fivecents

Why does the grade of Very Fine and Almost Uncirculated have more recognized grading levels than the other circulated grades? Very Fine consists of VF20, VF25, VF30 and VF35. Almost Uncirculated has AU50, AU53, AU55 and AU58. Extra fine only has two; XF40 and XF45. I can understand why AU has more recognized grading levels, because it is the bridge between circulated and uncirculated. Why doesn't the grade of XF have as many recognized grading levels as VF?

bushmaster8

FiveCents... you are really George Carlin, right??

BillJones

The whole system goes back to Dr. Sheldon who devised this as a way place a value on die varieties of early large cents in a compact way. The bridge between VF and EF is pretty wide. It goes from just a little better than a coin in Fine that has all of the major design details visible to a coin with no mint luster, but all of the major details quite sharp.

In the "old world" EF was a coin that had all of the detail sharp with just a brush of wear on the highest surfaces. There was virtually no mint luster or no mint luster on a EF-40 and a trace of it on an EF-45. An AU coin would have 50 to 75 percent of its mint luster. Sheldon had only two AU grades, 50 and 55. The others have been added later.

In general there has been a relaxation of grading standards. Many EF-40 coins are what VF-30 and 35 used to be. I've seen some Morgan Dollars in AU-50 holders that I would be hard pressed to call EF-40. All of these added grades provide sellers with opportunities get higher prices for the coins for tiny differences in preservation. Sometimes it's justified for really scarce coins; for common ones it's a waste of time IMO.

BAJJERFAN

They should really extend ef to include ef50 and ef53 and limit au to au55 and au58 IMO. Makes more sense.

fivecents

<< <i>FiveCents... you are really George Carlin, right?? >>


I wish.

BillJones......Great Point!



<< <i>They should really extend ef to include ef50 and ef53 and limit au to au55 and au58 IMO. Makes more sense. >>


BAJJERFAN..... Would that mean a tightening up on the grading standards?

The point difference on the grading scale between F15 and VF35 is 20 points, where as the grade difference is 10 points between VF35 and XF45. I guess according to the Sheldon grading there is twice as many grade variances in VF than Ef.

BAJJERFAN

My point is that an au50 has too much wear to be considered in the same category as an au58 or ms60. An au50 is hardly the image that I conjure up when I think of almost/about uncirculated.

NJCollector

Speaking of George Carlin, it's kind of like his line about flamable.

There's: Flamable, Inflamable, and Non-Inflamable.

How can there be three?

fivecents

BAJJERFAN.....I agree with dropping AU50 grade down to the extra fine level, but I would keep the AU53 grade at the AU level. Downing grading the lower AU grades to EF is an excellent point.

ARCO

VF is the unused grade. VF encompasses twenty grading points. Some use the intermediate grades of 25, 30 and 35. But a lot of sellers like to just round up those pesky last 5 or ten grading points and call them XF. I mean what the hell, it is only 10 points and the price usually goes up a lot from VF to XF so why not?

I see a lot of overgrading from the VF30 to the XF range and the XF range to the AU50 range. I wonder why anyone would want to grade a coin higher than it really is?? That is the biggest question I have.

Tyler

fivecents

Arco.... I think the line between VF35 and EF40 can be very "fuzzy.

dollardude

Fivecents, thanks for asking this question. I was wondering this myself! My engineer brain thinks the same way!