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Mar 16
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Most rare coin dealers these days are in the business not only of selling coins but also of grading them, which means assigning them a number value based on their wear or level of perfection. In fact, a rare coin dealer could also be called a numismatist, which is someone who studies rare and antique coins. A reputable, experienced rare coin dealer will be good at grading coins and will be able to give you a good estimate of what the coin is actually worth.
Basically, a rare coin dealer will grade a coin based on its look. While a magnifying glass might be used, there isn’t really any scientific testing going on when it comes to grading coins. In fact, most coin collectors learn to give a good estimate of a coin’s grade once they’ve collected coins for several years just because they get to know what the characteristics of each grade are.
When a coin dealer looks at a coin with the intention of grading it, he’s looking for several things. He’ll check for obvious wear, and if there is no obvious wear, he’ll examine the coin more closely to check for wear on its most raised surfaces. Sometimes you can see wear if you shine a light on the coin and look at it from an angle that allows you to see how the light plays off of the coin’s surfaces. On a perfect, mint state coin, the light will bounce off of all the coin’s surfaces in the same way. On a coin that is somewhat worn, though, scratches on the coin’s raised surfaces will refract the light differently.
Professional numismatists will also look at the coin’s shine. If you’ve ever seen a newly-minted coin, you know that the newer a coin is, the shinier it is. The level of shine a coin has can help determine its grade, and higher-grade coins will typically be shinier.
Besides this, numismatists will look for things like how much detail has been worn off of the coin’s original design. A fine coin, for example, will have worn out a lot of the detail even though the main design will be visible. A very fine coin will show a little bit of wear in the details, but you’ll still be able to catch many of the intricacies of the design. As you can see, the level of wear that differentiates one class of coin from the next is very slight, which is why you should leave real coin grading to the professionals.