It can be tough sometimes as a coin collector, to grade various world coins. What grade would you assign these 3 silver coins?? @longshot @lordmarcovan
I say vf on the 20 centavos,but the other two xf especially the 6 pence. The obv. Shows some wear but the rev. Looks sharp. That one would go for a swim ....in acetone.
After a few years of bulk bag cherrypicking world coin lots, I evolved my own set of extremely basic standards which can be used as a general rule of thumb for grading most anything coinlike or medallic "on the fly". (Except perhaps really minimalistic designs with just lettering and/or no pictorial elements). It is mostly adapted from the grading section at the front of the Krause catalogs. Generally speaking, you can quickly assign a coin to most of the basic grade levels based on estimated details alone: MS: 100% of the original details (no wear) + luster AU: 99% of the original detail + luster XF: 90% of the original detail VF: 75% of the original detail F: 50% of the original detail Obviously this is only the most cursory set of standards, but it's easy to remember and can be applied to most anything. Once you've got this set of standards committed to memory, you can extrapolate and fine-tune your examination of a coin from there. But those are the basics. Learning to grade World coins unsurprisingly made me better at grading US coins. For some types one focuses on a particular feature at the high part of the design. For example, I always grade post-1928 Irish predecimal coins by the frame of the harp.
The NZ 6d doesn't really need acetone in my opinion (though that wouldn't harm it). It's just darker because it's of a .500 silver composition. That's normal.
It DOES have some crud built up around the lettering though. Yes the darker color is from metal composition. I will try and sell this coin tommorow at the flea, and if it comes back home w me, i will give it a bath. These 3 were chosen because i thought they could be any wheres from VF-AU & there is a little fluctuation in value. I got these and a few others for melt today for a quick flip tommorow (hopefully)
Just on my phone, and likely won't be back to my computer tonight, but I will go vf on the 20 center, and say the other two just miss xf. Or call 'em debatable xf's. The kind of stuff I love to find for melt.
Dunno about the Peruvian. Could have had an old cleaning but would have been acceptable to me. I wouldn't have said "cleaned" on the Philippine coin at all. Looks nice and original to me? Hmm.
