Editing Coin grading (section)

== American Numismatic Association scale==

As the hobby of numismatics evolved, the need arose for a more concrete grading system. In 1978, the [[American Numismatic Association]] published the ''Official A.N.A. Grading System for United States Coins''.<ref name="ANA">{{Cite web |title=How United States Coins are Graded |url=https://www.pcgs.com/news/how-united-states-coins-are-graded |access-date=2023-06-19 |website=PCGS |language=en-us}}</ref> It established grading tiers of, in descending order of preservation, ''Mint State'', ''About Uncirculated'', ''Extremely Fine'', ''Very Fine'', ''Fine'', ''Very Good'', ''Good'' and ''About Good''. Most numismatists, as well as third-party grading services, also use two other descriptors for the lowest grades, ''Fair'' and ''Poor''. The higher tiers on this scale each encompass two or more "sub-grades" denoted by the appending of the corresponding Sheldon scale number, such as ''Very Fine-20'' or ''Very Fine-30''. This allows for the recognition of coins which exceed the standard for a given tier, but do not meet the criteria for the next. Grades are commonly abbreviated, and not all numismatists use the numerical grades, so a grade of ''Fine-12'' may be rendered as ''Fine'', ''F-12'', ''12'' or simply ''F''.<ref name="ANA" />