ABBREVIATIONS, CONDITIONS/GRADING and RARITY LEGEND
STATE of
PRESERVATION |
Equivalent |
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FS |
Coin with special background treatment. For special collectors' mint sets. |
Fondo Specchio |
FB Flan Bruni |
Prf |
PP |
Prueba |
No visible signs of wear or handling. Perfect and complete. |
Fior di Conio |
FdC Fleur de Coin |
Unc |
Stgl |
SC/FdC |
|
About 90-95% of original detail visible. Low circulation traces. No bruises on the edge (or very, very little). |
Splendido |
Sup Superbe |
EF, XF |
Vorz |
EBC |
|
About 75% of original detail visible. Circulation traces are visible but not very heavy. You can see little bruises on the edge. |
Bellissimo |
TTB Très très beau |
VF |
SS |
MBC |
|
About 40-50% of original detail visible. Circulation traces are very heavy. Bruises on the edge, gashes, ... |
Molto Bello |
TB |
F |
S |
BC |
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B |
Coin in very low conditions, with about 25% of original detail visible. Very heavy wear on all of the coin. Maybe the coin has corrosion, a perforation, fractures, etc. . There's only a silhouette of the designs |
Bello |
B Beau |
VG |
SGE |
RC Regular. Conservada |
D |
Silhouette of a large design. Not very easy to classify the coin. |
Discreto |
TBC Très Bien Conservé |
G Good |
GE |
MC |
This grading scale (in italian) was born to value classic and medieval coins, technically not perfect how the modern or decimal coinage. The correspondance is not total, because U.K./U.S.A.-scale is a conservation scale, Italian scale is a quality scale. For that reason UNC and FdC are theoretically different. |
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Coins worth (and price) is also determined ...: - Characteristics to increase coins worth: original patina (better if whole and uniform, regular. See also glossary), original brilliant background, coining in centre (classic and medieval), appearance "freshness", artistic worth and historical importance. - Characteristics to decrease coins worth: no original patina, or artificial patina, bruises on the edge, gashes, fractures, perforations, metal's corrosion, cleaning/polishing, coining defects or soft strike/worn die, filled die, clipping, off center (small degrees, poor centering...), hooks, ex-jewelry, double struck,... . |
Other Abbreviations & symbols |
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m |
Better than |
G.Br. | Big Bronze (for Roman coinage) |
q |
Almost |
M.Br. | Medium Bronze (for Roman coinage) |
Sx |
Left |
P.Br. | Little Bronze (for Roman coinage) |
Dx |
Right |
( .... ) | Text in brackets shows not present letters on coin |
L.vi |
Some little... |
D/ | Obverse |
D |
Diameter |
R/ | Reverse |
ca. |
About, approximately |
mm | Millimetres (width and height); 1mm = 0,039in. |
// |
Discontinuity on the legend: for example, a text on two lines | ||
Metals - abbreviations |
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Ac | Acmonital (steel alloy) | It | Italma (aluminum alloy) |
Æ | Bronze (classic coins) | Mi / Mist | Billon |
Ag | Silver | NG | "Nordic Gold" |
Al | Alumin(i)um | Ni | Nickel |
Av | Gold | Pb | Lead |
Ba | Bronzital (Bronze alloy) | Sn | Tin |
Br | Bronze | Zn | Zinc |
Cu | Copper | ||
Rarity Grading |
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U | Unique | ||
RRRRR | R5 | Almost unique | |
RRRR | R4 | Of highest rarity | |
RRR | R3 | Extremely rare | |
RR | R2 | Very rare | |
R | Rare | ||
NC | Not common | ||
C | Common |
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