Need help with grading World coins

There used to be a couple for individual countries but most of those web sites are dead now. Bottom line, there isn't anything like what you want.

Just grade them the same basic way as you would US coins and you'll be close enough.

 

If you take the time to go through the Numismatic Resources section here on CT you'll find a ton of info to help you with grading - both US and world coinage.

 

That is considered to be true by many, but not by me. In fact I would say there is very little difference in the actual grading standards used by the US and those used by Europeans. And in one way in particular the Europeans are even much more lax than we are here in the US - that being that harsh cleaning is acceptable there. It's still as common there as it was here 50 years ago.

 

Chris I can only tell you that I can relate literally thousands of examples where it was true. You read the world coin sections of the various forums as much as I do, or as much as I used to I should say. Now you probably read them more than I do. Can you say that you do not recall seeing the same reports, from trusted forum members, that I always did ?

I can also relate to you numerous examples of members of this forum itself that have asked my opinions about coins in European auctions or being sold by European dealers and being assured by those same dealers that the coins were not and had not been harshly cleaned. But when they bought those coins, and then sent them in to the TPGs - they came back body-bagged for harsh cleaning.

Now perhaps it is because the Europeans do not see cleaning the same way we do here in the US. 50 years ago if you had asked almost any US collector if his coins had been harshly cleaned, they would have sat there and told you - no, of course not ! And the whole time he would be sitting there polishing his latest Peace dollar with a jeweler's cloth.

But it absolutely happens, and happens a lot.

 

Christian I have no doubt that there are some people, some dealers and collectors, in Europe that do not find harsh cleaning as being acceptable. My comments were not intended to be absolutes - meaning that every single collector and dealer in Europe did accpet it. But rather that it is far, far more commonplace for it to be acceptable there than it is here in the US.

It is undeniable that the vast majority of collectors and dealers here in the US found harsh cleaning as being acceptable 50 years ago and had been accepted since the inception of collecting here in the US. That is a documented fact. It is also a documented fact that it was accepted in Europe, for that's where all of the collectors in the early years of the US came from - Europe !

Now about 50 years ago, which is when I started collecting, I was taught by my grandfather that discriminating collectors did not clean their coins. He readily admited that almost everybody did, but that if I was smart I would not do so. I took his advice to heart.

Over the years, more and more collectors here in the US began to feel the same way. And by the time the '80s had arrived most collectors felt the same way and harsh cleaning was frowned upon. By the time the TPGs came along in the late '80s harshly cleaned coins were body bagged. We all know the history from there.

Now my point is this - the practice of cleaning one's coins changed here in the US. My premise is that it did not change in Europe. The grading of coins here in the US changed about the same time. It did not change in Europe. By your own admission it has still not changed in Europe.

So exactly when was it that the practice of cleaning your coins, a practice that had been accepted for centuries, when was it that that practice changed in Europe ?

 

Well, I am glad to hear that the practice is changing