Top Document: Paper Money Collecting FAQ Previous Document: 1.8) What is a "Pick" number? Next Document: 1.10) Who are some dealers and professionals that I can contact? See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge The condition of a note is critical to its value. Lowering the grade of a note one notch can decrease its value by 1/3 or even 1/2. An expensive note which falls between two categories might be worth a thousand dollars more in the higher category than the lower one. Thus, it's often important to be more precise than using a limited number of categories. But here's a general guideline. Note that many dealers have slightly different grading systems, especially with various sub-grades of uncirculated. There's no official system of grading, unfortunately. But these are pretty much universally accepted. I've received a lot of input and tried to hammer out the best descriptions for each category. Crisp Uncirculated, UNC or CU: This means absolutely not the slightest sign of any handling or wear or folding or *anything*. Some people use additional grades to distinguish qualities such as perfect centering or other printing characteristics. Certainly a note which has centering problems which are visible from a distance of 1 meter (3 feet) should have this mentioned in the condition description. Almost Uncirculated (or About Uncirculated), AU: This means there is a slightly detectable imperfection such as a counting fold on one corner or slightest fold in the center (nothing which breaks the surface of the paper) or a pinhole. At first glance it looks like an UNC note. Extremely Fine, EF or XF: Generally three light folds or one strong fold which breaks the surface. There may be slight rounding at the corners. Very Fine, VF: May have several folds although the note is still crisp and has a minimum of dirt. There may be minor tears or very small holes but nothing which distracts from the overall appearance of the note. Take an uncirculated note and crumple it once in your hand, then flatten it out: this is a Very Fine note. Repeat the crumpling and it's still pretty much a VF note. Fine, F: A circulated note where individual folds and creases may no longer be visible. To distinguish this from a VF note, when inspecting a Fine note, it clearly does not look like a note which has merely been crumpled a few times: It doesn't have the crispness and brightness of a VF note. No tears may extend into the printing. This is your average in-the-wallet note. Very Good, VG: Tears and small holes can be present. The note is not crisp at all. The is your lower quality in-the-wallet note. Lots of people on the 'net don't realize that a note in "very good" condition is really pretty lousy. Good, G: Small pieces missing, graffiti. A worn out note. Fair: Major tears, etc. A badly worn out note. Poor: Even worse. To grade a note precisely, it can help to hold the note about 20 cm (7 inches) under a strong light source (use the same source for comparing notes) and on top of a white piece of paper and use a 3x or 4x power magnifying glass. Make sure your hands are clean before handling a note. This method will show a lot of minor imperfections which are not normally visible. Note that note from many countries have standard features which exist for even Uncirculated notes. Some notes from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma/Myanmar, India, Nepal, and Pakistan are only found with staple holes where staples are always used to hold packs of notes together. Most dealers list Uncirculated notes of this type as having the usual staple holes (often abbreviated as uSH-UNC). Also, some notes printed in France (for about 15 different countries) have a slight crinkle effect. User Contributions:Top Document: Paper Money Collecting FAQ Previous Document: 1.8) What is a "Pick" number? Next Document: 1.10) Who are some dealers and professionals that I can contact? Single Page [ Usenet FAQs | Web FAQs | Documents | RFC Index ] Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer: Bruce Giese <giesewpm@tiac.net>
Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:11 PM
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