Editing Coin grading (section)

==Overview==
A "grade" measures a coin's appearance. There are generally five main components which determine a coin's grade: strike, surface preservation, luster, coloration and eye appeal. Grading is subjective and even experts can disagree about the grade of a given coin.<ref>{{cite web|last=Winter|first=Doug|title=The Five Components of Coin Grading|year=2001|url=http://www.coinresource.com/articles/coin_grading_criteria.htm|access-date=2010-06-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100308140816/http://www.coinresource.com/articles/coin_grading_criteria.htm|archive-date=2010-03-08|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite web |last1=Travers |first1=Scott |title=Introduction |url=http://www.coingrading.com/intro1.html|website=coingrading.com|author-link1=Scott A. Travers |publisher=coingrading.com |access-date=2015-09-09}}</ref>

===History===

U.S. coin grading has evolved over the years to a system of finer and finer grade distinctions. Originally, there were only two grades, new and used. This changed to the letter grading system beginning with the lowest grade – ''Basal State'' (also ''Poor'' (PO)), then continuing ''Fair'' (Fr), ''About'' or ''Almost Good'' (AG), ''Good'' (G), ''Very Good'' (VG), ''Fine'' (F), ''Very Fine'' (VF), ''Extremely Fine'' (EF), ''Almost'' or ''About Uncirculated'' (AU), ''Uncirculated'' (Unc) and up to ''Brilliant Uncirculated'' (BU). ''Gem Uncirculated'' was roughly equivalent in usage to BU at that time. Numerical grades from 1 to 70 now accompany the verbal grades.<ref name="ngccoin.com">{{cite web |title=NGC |url=http://www.ngccoin.com/ |website=ngccoin.com |publisher=NGC |access-date= }}</ref><ref name="PCGS Coin Facts">{{cite web|title=PCGS Coin Facts|url=http://www.pcgscoinfacts.com/|website=pcgscoinfacts.com|publisher=pcgscoinfacts.com|access-date=2015-09-05}}</ref><ref name="ANACS">{{cite web |title=ANACS |url=http://www.anacs.com/ |website=www.anacs.com/ |publisher=ANACS |access-date=2015-09-05 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150331031729/http://www.anacs.com/ |archive-date=2015-03-31 }}</ref><ref name="icgcoin.com">{{cite web |title=ICG |url=http://www.icgcoin.com/ |website=icgcoin.com|publisher=ICG|access-date=2015-09-05}}</ref>