Quick education needed on grading

DesertRat

I am primarily interested in ancient coins atm, so is the grading similar to that of U.S. and World coins or do you use a different scale when grading coins this old?

lordmarcovan

I use the generalized grading scale at the front of the Krause Standard Catalogs for all coins. Krause does not list ancient coins, but their general guidelines, expressed in percentages of remaining detail, allow one to pretty much grade any coin from anywhere and any period in time. (My grading of American coins improved after I learned to grade world coins). Do you have Krause? I can type you a transcript of that grading scale, if you don't.

Where specialized standards are published (as in US coins, with the ANA standards), I use a combination of the general and the specialized: if a coin meets both sets of criteria, it makes the grade.

With a field like ancient coins, no set of specialized US/ANA-style standards could possibly be published, so you're pretty much on your own, there. I personally use the general Krause standard but express the grade in Sheldon numbers like an American TPG would (i.e., EF40, EF45, etc.)

However, most dealers and collectors of ancient coins use the British standards. (aF=about Fine, F=Fine, gF=good Fine, etc.) British standards are much tighter than US ones. Roughly speaking, a British "Fine" is much more like an American VF, a British "Very Fine" more like an American EF, and a British "Extremely Fine" more like an American AU. I believe many of the ancient coin references will go into more detail on the British system. I'm partial to the American system, myself, but I'm American.

I use a hodgepodge of different references for grading but I have gotten confident enough on most coins to "wing it" without having to go back to the book(s). Of course, ancient coins are made with different technology, and there are differences of strike and other factors one will have to deal with. And after Rome fell and Europe descended into the Dark Ages, they actually regressed in their technology considerably- medieval coins are mostly downright crude, and they represent a real challenge to grade.

DesertRat

Once again, thanks Rob, you are a wealth of information!

I don't have a Krause book yet but may in the future.

You gave me what I was looking for in terms of grading and that's a big help. Is there a similar scale for what would be called population in the US coin world? I see ancient coins listed as "Rare" "Very Rare" "Scarce" etc... is there a standard for this as well?

Aethelred

Dan, there is really no quick route to being a good grader. The best thing you can do is to put yourself in a position where you will see as many coins as possible, study how they are graded, what they look like et cetera. You will find that ancient coins are graded rather differently than modern coins as there are many more factors to consider. A good starter book would be "Ancient Coin Collecting" Vol 1 by Wayne G. Sayles, you should be able to get one on the cheap on eBay.