Category Archives: Sheldon Scale

What Does MS64 Mean When Grading Coins?

By Joshua McMorrow-Hernandez for PCGS …… There’s no question that grade matters in coin collecting. When it comes to grading, the Sheldon Scale rules, with its 70-point numerical grading basis that denotes the grade of a coin on a scale ranging from 1 (the lowest grade) to 70 (the highest). Along that grading spectrum, certain […]

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From the PCGS Coin Grading Room: Distribution, Condition Census and Provenance

By Kyle Knapp for PCGS …… Any introduction to coin grading begins with broad, theoretical descriptions of each grade category: mostly full rims for “Good”, generally complete lettering for “Fine”, and so on. However, as one gains experience or begins to specialize, more issue-specific lenses are required for meaningful interpretation of the numeric grade assigned […]

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Confronting Sheldon

By David Thomason Alexander for CoinWeek ….. Dr. William Herbert Sheldon, born on November 19, 1898 and dying on September 17, 1977, was venerated for decades as one of the historical giants of American numismatics. During his later life he took the stage as the godfather or even the resident deity of the highly specialized […]

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The Early Days of Numerical Coin Grading

By Tom DeLorey for CoinWeek ….. Numismatist Ron Guth has very sincerely proposed that the coin industry and the significant Third Party Grading Services (TPG’s) change the grading standards that it and they use. His new system would go from the current scale of 1 to 70 to a new one that starts at 1 […]

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Ron Guth Proposes 100-Point Coin Grading Scale

 We discuss the Guth 100-Point Coin Grading Scale in this week’s CoinWeek Podcast. Click to listen. On Monday, Ron Guth, the 2014 American Numismatic Association’s Numismatist of the Year and former President of PCGS, released a statement advocating for the adoption of a new 100-point coin grading scale. According to Guth, the Guth 100 […]

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Market Whimsy: More Perfect than Perfect – MS-70+ and Beyond

Ask any retiree or coin collector and they’ll tell you: 70 ain’t what it used to be By Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker ….. Charles and Hubert’s column Market Whimsy, which originally appeared in the American Numismatic Association (ANA) magazine The Numismatist, won the 2016 Numismatic Literary Guild’s award for Best Column, Non-Profit Large Publications. This […]

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Market Whimsy: More Perfect than Perfect – MS-70+ and Beyond

Ask any retiree or coin collector and they’ll tell you: 70 ain’t what it used to be By Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker ….. Charles and Hubert’s column Market Whimsy, which originally appeared in the American Numismatic Association (ANA) magazine The Numismatist, won the 2016 Numismatic Literary Guild’s award for Best Column, Non-Profit Large Publications. This […]

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The History of the First Third-Party Grading Service

By Tom DeLorey for CoinWeek.com…. Many collectors nowadays are afraid to buy any coin not already graded and encapsulated by a third-party grading service (TPG). Whenever a “raw” coin is offered for sale, the cynics automatically say “What’s wrong with it that it’s not in a slab?” This is nonsense of course, as collectors such […]

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The History of the First Third-Party Coin Grading Service – ANACS

By Tom DeLorey for CoinWeek.com…. Many collectors nowadays are afraid to buy any coin not already graded and encapsulated by a third-party grading service (TPG). Whenever a “raw” coin is offered for sale, the cynics automatically say “What’s wrong with it that it’s not in a slab?” This is nonsense of course, as collectors such […]

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David T. Alexander: Launching a Coin Cataloger

By David T. Alexander for CoinWeek…. Becoming a functioning numismatic auction cataloger requires a great deal of hands-on learning. Years of reading and reviewing numismatic auction catalogs can provide basic familiarity with the field, but mastering the actual work of cataloging objects for auction was another matter altogether. No one teaches courses in cataloging, no […]

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