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About Good
The grade AG-3. The grade of a coin that falls short of Good. Only the main features of the coin are present in this grade. Peripheral lettering, date, stars, etc. sometimes are partially worn away.

About Uncirculated
The grades AU50, 53, 55, and 58. A coin that on first glance appears Uncirculated but upon closer inspection has slight friction or rub.

Abrasions
Area(s) of a coin where a foreign object or another coin has displaced metal in an abraded fashion. Similar to a bag mark but usually on the high points or open fields and not as deep or acute as the former.

Accolated, conjoined, jugate
Design with two heads facing the same direction and overlapping.

Accumulation
A miscellaneous grouping of coins, often as a monetary hoard. Opposite of a coin collection. A second use is as a grouping of a particular date, type, or series. (Example: an accumulation–of Bust Halves.)

Adjustment marks
In the early days of the US Mint, planchets were often made overweight, by design. These planchets would then be adjusted with a file, by hand, to bring them down to the proper weight specifications for the coin. The resulting marks are known as adjustment marks. Because of the relatively low striking pressure used on coins under the open collar striking process, these adjustment marks were not always removed by the striking process, and are often very visible on a coin’s surface, resembling a series of parallel scratches. Adjustment marks do not affect a coin’s grade, since they are a part of the minting process. Of course, they may very well affect the coin’s eye appeal.

Aes grave
Cast bronze issue of the Roman republic; literally “heavy bronze.”

Aes rude
Large cast rectangular bronze coin, one of the earliest Roman coins.

AG-3
Acronym for About Good. (the grade) and “3″ (the corresponding numerical designation). Most of the lettering on the coin is readable, but there is moderately heavy wear into the rims. This grade is frequently found on Barber coins where the obverse is fully Good (or better) but the reverse is heavily worn

AGW (Actual Gold Weight)
This refers to the amount of pure gold in a coin, medal or bar. Any alloys are part of the gross weight of a gold coin, but not part of the AGW.

Album
A book-like holder with slots for storing coins

Album friction
A less severe instance of album slide marks. Album friction shows as slight rubbing on the high points.

Album slide marks
Lines (often parallel) imparted to the surface of a coin by the plastic “slide” of an album, mostly found on proof coins.

Alloy
A combination of two or more metals.

Allegorical Personification
A concept, represented in the form of a person. These representations have been appearing on coins since antiquity; in fact, Roman coinage would often feature the Emperor on one side and one such representation on the other. The familiar British penny relied for many years on an allegorical representation of Britannia. On US coins, Liberty is by far the most common such personification, but she is not the only one. Victory appears on the Texas Half Dollar; Justice on the Columbia, SC Half Dollar, and Freedom on the Library of Congress Half Dollar and Dollar. The 1896 Educational Silver Certificates were loaded with such representations.

Almost Uncirculated
Alternate of About Uncirculated. The grades AU50, 53, 55, and 58. These coins often look Uncirculated at first glance, but closer inspection will reveal slight friction or rub.

Alteration
A coin that has a date, mintmark, or other feature that has been altered, added, or removed, usually to simulate a rarer issue.

Altered
Intentionally modified after the minting process, such as by changing the date or by adding or removing a mintmark, usually in an attempt to deceive collectors (example: 1944-D Lincoln cent altered to appear to be a much more valuable 1914-D)

Altered surfaces
Cleaning or other impairment that renders a coin less desirable to collectors.

American Arts Gold Medallions
A series of 1ounce and half-ounce gold bullion medals issued by the U.S. Mint from 1980-84. Medals depict great American artists, writers and actors. See also medallion.

American Eagle
Bullion coins released by the U.S. Mint beginning in October 1986. Five coins are available: a 1-ounce, .999 fine silver coin with $1 face value; a 1-ounce, .9167 fine gold coin with $50 face value; a half-ounce, .9167 fine gold coin with $25 face value; a quarter-ounce, .9167 fine gold coin with $10 face value; and a tenth-ounce, .9167 fine gold coin with $5 face value. Coins are sold at prices based on current metal prices plus a markup. See also eagle.

ANA – American Numismatic Association
Short for “American Numismatic Association.” A non-profit numismatic organization founded in 1888 for the advancement of numismatics. The American Numismatic Association is the world’s largest organization of coin collectors and dealers. Chartered by an Act of Congress in 1912. 818 N. Cascade Ave., Colorado Springs, CO 80901.

ANACS – (American Numismatic Association Certification Service)
Originally, only authentication was offered, grading was added later. The grading service and acronym were sold by the ANA and now operate under this name as a third party grading service.

ANACS certificate
A uniquely numbered opinion of authenticity and/or grade from the ANA Certification Service. The ANA now only authenticates, having sold the name and grading service.

Ancients
General term for coins of the world struck circa 600 B.C. to circa 500 A.D.

Annular
Ring-shaped. Many world coins, notably in low denominations, and even some US coin patterns are annular.

Annealing
The heating (and cooling) of a die or planchet to soften the metal before preparation of the die or striking of the coin.

ANS
Short for “American Numismatic Society.”

Ant nose
Primitive copper money of China ca.600 B.C.

Anvil die
The lower, stationary die – usually the reverse. The reverse is usually the anvil die, although on some issues with striking problems, the obverse was employed as the lower die. Because of the physics of minting, the fixed lower-die impression is slightly better struck than the upper-die impression. – Also see: Hammer die

Arrows
Design element usually found in the left (viewer’s right) claw of the eagle seen on many US coins. After 1807, there usually were three arrows while prior to that time the bundle consisted of numerous ones.

Arrows and rays
Term referring to 1853 quarters and half dollars. The rays were removed in 1854 because of striking difficulties created by the busy design.

Arrows at date
Term referring to the arrows to the left and right of the date. These were added to the dies to indicate a weight increase or decrease.

Artificial toning
Color added to the surface of a coin by heat and/or chemicals. or other “doctoring” Many different methods have been employed over the years.

As
(Plural: asses) Bronze or orichalcum coins
of the Roman republic.

Ask
The lowest current asking price of a particular coin issue and grade offered for sale on a trading network, pricing newsletter, or other medium.

Assay
Analytic test or trial to ascertain the fineness, weight and consistency of precious or other metal in coin or bullion. An assay piece is one that has been assayed.

Attribute
n. A characteristic of a coin; v. To identify a coin by determining the country of origin, denomination, series, date, mintmark and (if applicable) variety

Attributes
The elements that make up a coin’s grade. The main ones are marks (hairlines for Proofs), luster, strike, and eye appeal.

Attribution
The identification of a numismatic item by characteristics such as issuing authority, date or period, Mint, denomination, metal in which struck, and by a standard reference.

AU
Acronym for About (Almost) Uncirculated.

AU-50
“About Uncirculated” (the grade) and “50″ (the numerical designation of that grade). Also called “Almost Uncirculated-50.” This is the lowest of the four AU grades, with the others being AU53, AU55, and AU58. Between 50% and 100% of the surfaces will exhibit luster disturbances, and perhaps the only luster still in evidence will be in the protected areas. The high points of the coin will have wear that is easily visible to the naked eye.

AU-53
“About Uncirculated” (the grade) and “53″ (the numerical designation of that grade). Also called “Almost Uncirculated-53.” There is obvious wear on the high points with light friction covering 50-75% of the fields. There are noticeable luster breaks, with most of the luster still intact in the protected areas.

AU-55
“About Uncirculated” (the grade) and “55″ (the numerical designation of that grade). Also called “Almost Uncirculated-55.” There is slight wear on the high points with minor friction in the fields. Luster can range from almost nonexistent to virtually full, but it will be missing from the high points. The grade of “Choice AU” equates to AU55.

AU-58
“About Uncirculated” (the grade) and “58″ (the numerical designation of that grade). Also called “Almost Uncirculated-58.” There is the slightest wear on the high points, even though it may be necessary to tilt the coin towards the light source to see the friction. In many cases the reverse of an AU58 coin will be fully Mint State. Less than 10% of the surface area will show luster breaks. The grade of “Borderline Unc” equates to AU58.

Auction
An offering of coins or other items for sale where the buyer must bid against other potential buyers . Price is determined by the highest bidder, sometimes with a reserve (minimum) . This is in contrast with ordering from a catalog, price list, or advertisement at an advertised price.

Authentication
The process of determining the genuineness of a coin or other numismatic item.

-B-

Bag
A generic term for the cloth sacks used to transport and store coins. These came into use in the mid-nineteenth century and replaced wooden kegs. Also refers to the quantity of coins of a particular denomination found in a bag (such as 5000 cents or 1000 silver dollars).

Bag marks
Abrasions which occur on coins that were shipped in mint bags. Most often this term applies to silver dollars, although virtually any coin can have bag marks. Bag marks in no way mean that a coin is not mint state. In fact, even a coin graded Mint State-67 or higher could have some bag marks.

Bag toning
Coloring acquired from the bag while a coin was stored. Cloth coin bags contained sulfur and other metal-reactive chemicals. When stored in bags for extended periods, coins in close proximity to the cloth often acquire beautiful red, yellow, blue and other vibrant colors. Sometimes the weave of the cloth is visible in the toning. Some coins have crescent-shaped toning because another coin was covering part of the surface, thus preventing toning. Bag toning is seen most often on Morgan silver dollars.

Barber coinage
Common name for the Charles Barber designed Liberty Head dimes, quarters, and half dollars struck during the 1890s and early 1900s.

Basal state
The condition of a coin that is identifiable only as to date, mintmark (if present), and type; one-year-type coins may not have a date visible.

Basal value
The value base on which Dr. William H. Sheldon’s 70-point grade/price system started. The lowest-grade price was one dollar ($1) for the 1794 large cent – upon which he based his system.

Basining
The process of polishing a die to create a mirrored surface or to remove clash marks or other damage from a die.

Beaded border
Small round devices around the edge of a coin, often seen on early U.S. coins.

BG Gold
Term sometimes applied to California fractional gold coins as documented in the Breen-Gillio reference work California Pioneer Fraction Gold.

Bid
The highest price offered to buy a particular coin issue and grade either on a trading network, pricing newsletter, or other medium.

Bidder
A dealer issuing a quotation on an electronic trading system.

Blank
A flat disk of unstruck metal destined to be made into a coin.

BN
Short for Brown; refers to copper coins.

Body bag
Slang term for a coin returned from a grading service in a plastic sleeve within a flip. The coin referred to is deemed a “no-grade” and is not graded or encapsulated. Coins are no-grades for a number of reasons, including questionable authenticity, polishing, cleaning, and/or repair.

Bourse
The Paris stock exchange. This term has come to be synonymous with coin show.

Bourse floor
The physical area where a coin show takes place.

Braided Hair
Style of hair on half cents and large cents from 1840 on. The hair is pulled back into a tight bun drawn with a braided hair cord.

Branch mint
One of the various subsidiary government facilities that struck, or still strikes, coins.

Breast feathers
The central feathers of eagle designs, particularly Morgan dollars. Fully struck coins typically command a premium and the breast feathers are usually the highest point of the reverse.

Breen
The late Walter Breen.

Breen Book
Slang for Walter Breen’s Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins. It was published in 1988.

Breen letter
A written or typed document by Walter Breen rendering his opinion on a particular numismatic item. Prior to 3rd party certification, this was a common method collectors and dealers used to authenticate a unique item.

Breen-Gillio
Numbering system base on the book California Pioneer Fraction Gold by Walter Breen and Ron Gillio.

Brilliant
Untoned. With no tarnish or oxidation, and with original cartwheel (frosty) or prooflike lustre. Copper coins are considered brilliant if they have full original red.

Brilliant Proof
A particular type of proof coin that has a full mirror surface in the fields.

Brilliant Uncirculated
A generic term for any coin that has not been in circulation.

Bronze
An alloy of copper and tin; special types also contain other elements.

Brown
The term applied to a copper coin that no longer has the red color of copper. It is abbreviated as BN when used as part of a grade or description.

BU
Acronym for Brilliant Uncirculated.

BU rolls
Wrapped coins (usually in paper) in specific quantities for each denomination. Cents are quantity 50, nickels quantity 40, dimes quantity 50, quarters quantity 40, half-dollars and dollars 20, etc.

Buckled die
A warped or distorted die. Can be caused by excess clashing. Often produces coins which are slightly bent.

Buffalo nickel
Slang for the Indian Head nickel, struck from 1913 to 1938. The animal depicted is an American Bison.

Bulged die
A die with a small indentation, formed from clashing. Results in “bulged” coins.

Bullet toning
See target toning.

Bullion
Ingots, coins, or other issues that trade for their intrinsic metal value. Only precious metals (silver, gold, platinum, and palladium) are included as bullion. Copper could also technically be considered as bullion.

Bullion coin
A legal tender coin that trades at a slight premium to its value as plain metal.

Burn mark
See counting machine mark.

Burnishing
A process in which the surfaces of a coin or a planchet are shined through rubbing or polishing. This term has both a positive and a negative context: In a positive sense, Proof planchets are burnished before they are struck. The procedure was done originally by rubbing wet sand across the surfaces to impart a mirror-like finish. In a negative sense, the surfaces on repaired or altered coins may be burnished by mechanical or chemical methods. For example, a high-speed drill with a wire brush attachment is used to achieve this effect.

Burnishing lines
Lines resulting from burnishing. Typically seen on open-collar Proofs and almost never observed on close-collar Proofs.

Business strike
A coin which was struck for use in general circulation, as opposed to a proof coin produced strictly for collector purposes.

Bust
The head and shoulders of the emblematic Liberty seen on many US issues.

Bust dollar
Slang term for silver dollars struck from 1795 through 1803.

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