Coins are graded on a scale from 1 to 70, where 1 is a worn disc you can barely identify and 70 is a coin with no flaws at all under magnification. The numbers come in two families. Circulated grades run from About Good (AG-3) through Good (G-4), Very Good (VG-8), Fine (F-12), Very Fine (VF-20 to 35), Extremely Fine (XF-40 and 45) and About Uncirculated (AU-50 to 58), and they describe how much of the design wear has removed. Mint State grades run from MS-60 to MS-70 and apply only to coins that never circulated; they describe how many marks, scuffs and weaknesses the coin picked up at the Mint and in storage. Proof coins, struck for collectors from polished dies, use the same numbers with a PR or PF prefix. The grade matters because value climbs steeply with it: a common Morgan dollar is worth about $35 in Good and several hundred dollars in MS-65, and the gap is far larger for scarce dates.
The honest version for most people is that the coins in a jar or an inherited album are circulated, usually Good to Very Fine, and their grade changes the value by a few dollars rather than a few hundred. The scale earns its keep on uncirculated and scarce coins, where a single point can double the price.
Quick answer
- 1 to 58 is circulated: the number says how much design is left. 60 to 70 is uncirculated: the number says how clean the surfaces are.
- A cleaned, scratched or damaged coin gets a "Details" grade and sells for a fraction of an undamaged one.
- Paying PCGS or NGC to grade a coin makes sense when the coin is worth a few hundred dollars or more; most circulated coins do not need it.
How to grade a coin yourself, step by step
- Decide whether it ever circulated. Tilt the coin under a single light and look for luster, the cartwheel sheen that rotates across an uncirculated coin's fields. If the highest points of the design (the cheek on a Morgan dollar, the hair above the ear on a Lincoln cent, the breast feathers on an eagle) show a flat, dull spot where metal has rubbed away, the coin circulated and belongs in the 1 to 58 range.
- For circulated coins, count how much design is left. Use the descriptions in the table below. The questions to ask are whether the date and legends are complete, whether the rim is full, and how much hair, feather, wreath or drapery detail survives. Grading from a worn high point down is easier than grading up.
- For uncirculated coins, count the marks. With a 5x loupe, look at the fields and the main portrait for contact marks (nicks from other coins), hairlines, and dull or scuffed spots. Few small marks hidden in the design means MS-63 to MS-65; marks on the cheek or in the open fields pull the grade down to MS-60 to MS-62; an essentially clean coin with full luster is MS-66 and up.
- Judge strike separately from wear. A weakly struck coin left the Mint with soft detail and can still be fully uncirculated; worn detail has flattened high points with a different texture from the surrounding luster. Weak strike lowers the grade a little, wear moves the coin out of Mint State entirely.
- Look hard for problems. Cleaning leaves fine parallel hairlines and an unnaturally bright or flat surface. Scratches, rim dents, corrosion, holes, bent coins and tooling are all problems. Any of these moves the coin to a Details grade, which the grading services write as the wear grade plus the problem, such as "XF Details, Cleaned."
- Account for eye appeal and color. Attractive natural toning, strong luster and a well-centered strike add a fraction of a grade and a real premium. On copper coins the color designation matters as much as the number: Red (RD), Red-Brown (RB) or Brown (BN), with Red worth the most.
- Compare against graded examples. Photos of coins in PCGS and NGC holders at each grade are easy to find, and holding your coin up against a known MS-63 and a known MS-65 of the same type is the quickest way to calibrate your eye.
The grades, and what you see at each one
| Grade | Name | What the coin looks like |
|---|---|---|
| PO-1 to FR-2 | Poor, Fair | Worn nearly smooth; type identifiable, date may be gone |
| AG-3 | About Good | Rims worn into the legends; date readable but worn |
| G-4, G-6 | Good | Full rim, all major design visible as outlines, no inner detail |
| VG-8, VG-10 | Very Good | Some inner detail; a few letters of LIBERTY on a headband, partial wreath |
| F-12, F-15 | Fine | Moderate even wear; all letters of LIBERTY visible, major hair and feather lines present |
| VF-20 to VF-35 | Very Fine | Light wear on high points only; most detail sharp |
| XF-40, XF-45 | Extremely Fine | Slight wear on the very highest points; traces of luster remain |
| AU-50 to AU-58 | About Uncirculated | Only a trace of rub on the highest points; most luster intact; AU-58 looks uncirculated at arm's length |
| MS-60 to MS-62 | Mint State, low end | No wear, but heavy marks, scuffs or dull luster |
| MS-63 | Choice Uncirculated | No wear; scattered marks, decent luster |
| MS-64 | Choice, near Gem | Fewer, smaller marks; good luster and eye appeal |
| MS-65 | Gem | Minor marks away from the focal points; strong luster |
| MS-66, MS-67 | Gem plus | Very few marks visible even with a loupe; exceptional luster |
| MS-68 to MS-70 | Superb Gem to Perfect | Essentially flawless; MS-70 means no flaws at 5x magnification |
Proof coins use PR or PF with the same numbers, and most modern proofs sit at PR-68 to PR-70 straight from the Mint. Cameo (CAM) and Deep Cameo (DCAM) describe frosted devices against mirrored fields on proofs and add value.
How much the grade changes the value
The table below shows two of the most common coins people own, priced at typical retail as of late 2026 with silver at about $40 per ounce. The point is the shape of the curve: slow across the circulated grades, steep once the coin is uncirculated.
| Grade | 1921 Morgan dollar, common date | 1909 VDB Lincoln cent (Philadelphia) |
|---|---|---|
| G-4 | $32 to $36 (near melt) | $10 to $14 |
| VF-20 | $36 to $40 | $15 to $20 |
| XF-40 | $40 to $45 | $20 to $25 |
| AU-50 | $42 to $50 | $25 to $35 |
| MS-60 | $50 to $60 | $35 to $45 |
| MS-63 | $60 to $85 | $45 to $70 (RB) |
| MS-65 | $180 to $300 | $120 to $200 (RD) |
| MS-66 | $500 to $900 | $250 to $450 (RD) |
| XF Details, cleaned | $33 to $38 | $8 to $12 |
The same curve applies to every series. A common wheat cent moves from a few cents in Good to a few dollars in MS-65, as the wheat penny guide shows, and a common Morgan follows the shape above, with date-by-date figures in the Morgan dollar guide. Where the grade matters most is on scarce dates: a 1893-S Morgan is worth a few thousand dollars in Good and well into six figures in MS-65, so one grading point can be the difference of a house.
Common mistakes
- Grading shine instead of wear. A bright coin is not an uncirculated coin. Most bright old coins have been cleaned, and cleaning takes them out of the straight-graded market entirely.
- Calling an AU coin uncirculated. The most common overgrade by owners. A faint flat rub on the cheek, the eagle's breast or the hair above the ear is the difference between AU-58 and MS-63, and between $45 and $75 on a common Morgan.
- Ignoring Details grades. A cleaned, scratched or holed coin is still worth something, but it sells at a steep discount, often 30 to 70 percent below an undamaged coin of the same wear grade. Pricing from a straight-grade list for a cleaned coin leads to disappointment.
- Reading price guides as sale prices. Retail price guides sit above what a dealer pays. Expect a dealer offer of roughly 60 to 80 percent of the guide on common coins, higher on scarce ones.
- Assuming a 70 exists for old coins. MS-70 and PR-70 are practically limited to modern issues. For a Morgan dollar or a Walking Liberty half, MS-67 is near the top of what exists.
- Grading from a single light angle. Hairlines from cleaning and faint rub only show at certain angles. Rotate the coin slowly under one lamp before deciding.
- Cleaning a coin to improve its grade. It does the opposite. Every method, from a soft cloth to a dip, leaves traces a grader can see and knocks the coin into a Details holder.
Strike, luster, surface, eye appeal
Professional graders weigh four things, and knowing them explains most grading surprises. Strike is how completely the dies impressed the design, and it varies by date and mint; some issues are never well struck. Luster is the original mint surface, visible as the cartwheel effect, and it is the first thing lost to wear, cleaning or dipping. Surface covers the marks, hairlines, spots and toning. Eye appeal is the overall impression, and it is the reason two coins with the same number of marks can land a point apart. The number on a holder is a judgment, not a measurement, and two graders can disagree by a point on a borderline coin, which is why regrading and crossover submissions exist.
What to photograph
- Each face straight on in soft, indirect daylight, filling the frame, so the full design and rim are visible and wear can be judged at the high points.
- A second shot of each face tilted under a single lamp, which shows luster, the cartwheel sheen and the hairlines left by cleaning. This is the photo that separates AU from Mint State and settles whether a coin has been cleaned.
- A close-up of the high points: the cheek and hair on a Morgan, the cheek and jaw on a Lincoln, the breast and legs on an eagle, the hand and skirt on a Walking Liberty.
- The rim and edge to show dents, filing and reeding.
- The date and mint mark sharp enough to read, because the grade means nothing without knowing which coin it is.
How WorthPic reads a coin photo for grade
WorthPic runs on the newest and most capable AI model available, tuned for exactly this kind of identification. It picks out the type, date and mint mark, then looks at the same things a grader looks at: how much of the design detail remains at the known high points, whether luster shows in the fields, and whether there are visible marks, hairlines, spots or damage. From that it gives a condition estimate in plain words, such as "circulated, roughly Very Fine" or "uncirculated with moderate marks, cleaning not ruled out," and a value range that reflects the grade it can see. It will not put a number like MS-64 on a coin, because photos cannot show luster from every angle or the faint rub that separates AU-58 from MS-62, and it says so when the deciding detail is not in the frame, usually asking for a tilted shot under a single lamp. WorthPic identifies and estimates. Only PCGS or NGC, with the coin in hand, assign a grade that the market trades on.
When to get it graded professionally
Grading costs money: PCGS and NGC charge from roughly $20 to $40 per coin at the lowest tiers plus membership and shipping, with higher fees for higher declared values and faster service. The fee is worth paying when the coin's value in a holder clearly exceeds its raw value by more than the fee, which in practice means coins worth about $200 or more, scarce dates in any grade, and uncirculated coins where the difference between MS-64 and MS-65 is a few hundred dollars. A coin shop or a coin club meeting is the right first stop for anything in between; an experienced dealer will give a grade opinion in seconds and tell you whether submitting makes sense. For a whole inherited collection, the inherited coins guide covers how to sort the few coins that deserve grading from the many that do not, and the error coins guide covers the separate question of attributing mint errors and varieties.