Please your advice.

[Erik]

Hi friends.
I am start collector and I have problem define condition of coins. I know that condicion may be G,F,VF,XF,UNC,BU. I read some difference between those condicions but Im not sure. If you can to show some photo of coin and then write condicion or description   - it will help for me. Thanks.
All opinion are welcome.

[Nighthawk]

Hi Eric! For starters why not try  http://www.us-coin-values-advisor.com/grading-coins.html. That's a good place to start for grading. Hope it's helpful to you. Regards, John

[KurtS]

Hi Erik,
Is there a particular coin you would like to know regarding grade? I find that determining grade depends a lot on knowledge of a particular coin series, since wear shows differently on each coin design. I know of an online grading guide for Canadian coins, as well as some useful info on Australian cons.

[DL20K]

.. or buy the Grading Standards book. It deals mainly with US coins, but one can relate what's said there to other coins. It's not that expensive.

[Paint Your Wagon]

HI Eric

Grading is a long learning process . First you have to know that nearly nobody in continental europe uses the grades you mention they are grades given by american grading companies . Grading has to be learned sometimes coin by coin . I can perfectly grade gold coins starting at XF and NGC will agree with my grade but I cannot grade a silver Morgan . Would not even dare to try . I learned grading from an american coindealer and it toke me a year to get the basics for gold coins.

The two main grading systems in Europe are the German and the French I would say . I will give some crossreferences lists and starting points
I do not know you understand german but I added the german point of view

http://www.predecimal.com/gradingchart.htm

http://www.anumis.de/lexikon/e/pe079.html

http://coins.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=coins&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.acoin.com%2Fgrading.htm

http://www.eurocoins.liesemeijer.com/Grading.html

http://www.coingrading.com/others1.html

In general germany and austria have three uncirculated grades
Handhoben which means the coin was manually put in the machine and taken out of the machine so should be MS65 or better
Stempelglanz which means all the lustre of an uncirculated coin and should be MS63 or better
Bankfrisch which means like the bank distributes them and should be MS60 or better

Also please note that several vendors will exagerate the conditions of a coin so ebay grade mean nothing in general.

I keep a biblio of NGC references and for instance the scratched coin i attach is MS61 and I agree with NGC . I agree most of the time with NGC


http://cgi.ebay.fr/CERTIFIEE-MS-61-LOUIS-DOR-GOLD-LOUIS-XV-1744-W-SPL_W0QQitemZ230287155330QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item230287155330&_trkparms=39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A10%7C240%3A1308&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

If you ever want an opinion on a gold coin I will try to give it . I cannot grade euro coins since they are too hard material and the main difficulty in grading is to decide whether a coin is circulated or not and eurocoins can circulate fairly long before the circulation shows

[Paint Your Wagon]

That is a supergood translation

I have never seen ea erstabschlag used on ebay because it cannot be controlled since it means the coin was minted amongst the so many first coins made . These days people are buying boxes and certificates instead of coins ( somewhat like the american slabbing mania )
I have two Belgian Kings with a maximum from 10 000 minted and the coin with a certificate above 5000 allready shows a default under magnification

On the other hand many European countries will use FDC which is Fleur de Coin which translates in the Flower coming out of the mould .
This term is very much abused since it should be MS 65 or better and a lot of ebay vendors will start using the term from MS 60 onwards or worse
I know a Swisse girl Erdnussli who used to sell anything that survived driving a truck over it as superb . But she was so ridiculed in a german forum that she moderated her terms somewhat

[Erik]

Thanks you all. It is really very hard.