What does it mean when a dealer says "A condition census example of this issue."

TheLiberator

Does that mean a super grade common date?

ziggy29

A "condition census" coin is usually one that is in the top few examples of its variety in terms of grade. I think it was first used by Dr. William Sheldon with large cents, and usually refers to the top (I think) six graded coins of its variety.

michael

for me it means top 5 known to the general numismatic community of the collectors that specialize in such

known being the operative word here and as i have seen in the past 4 decades this can change somewhat to dramatically for many coins

now it means one of the top 5 certified to a particiular service and grade
which in many cases means nothing unless you are a certian registry participant

michael

elwood

<< <i>now it means one of the top 5 certified to a particiular service and grade >>


Not really....there are some of the finest knowns/condition census coins that are not in slabs.
Condition Census is a historical record of the finest known coins of a date or variety that are known to the numismatic community.

numobri

I've always thought of it as,one of the finest known but,kept in mind,all is not known.

magikbilly

expensive?

Conder101

Usually unless a pedigree is included with the description it often just means hype. It gets especially bad with large cents. It is very common to see a major copper collection sold and then the dealers that buy the coins have them slabbed and then tout the new higher slab grades as being high condition census when it actually isn't even on the low end of the extended CC. (In large cents we maintain a 10 coin CC and in early dates often as many as 18 coins.)