AU it means almost uncirculated it also means about uncirculated this is what the book i am reading says is it a mistake or if it is not a mistake how can you tell the difference any advice appreciated thanks, stainless
Both mean the same thing or at least I have used them both to mean the same thing. So no difference - both mean the coin was circulated, before being collected.
May as well cover XF and EF while we're at it. Both mean extra fine. Glad to see you're doing some reading Stainless.
If you want to go by the Red Book which was probably the first book to show conditions of coins, 2008 edition, page 10, AU = About Uncirculated. Actually that book does not use the term Almost, only About. Note although both mean apparantly similar grades, many people would say the word about is very ambiguous and could mean anything. Whereas Almost truely indicates close to Uncirculated. Nowadays due to so many law suites a word, term, phrase has to be very explicit. For example at an organization I know of that deals with Nuclear Power all approval stamps had to be recalled since they used the terem MAY PROCEED. That had to be changed to read COULD PROCEED. Note the slight difference where MAY gives permission but COULD leaves the final decision to the receiver of the document.
Per the ANA Grading Standards: AU = About Uncirculated (not Almost Uncirculated) EF = Extremely Fine (not Extra Fine)
au/au i'm wondering if au is listed as pu (probably uncirculated) anywhere? although it could be used for its other meaning for e-bay listings sometimes, NO!? steve
Of course PU could mean the coin was where it shouldn't have been so the PU means Pretty Ugly. So we have Possibly Uncirculated, Perhaps Uncirculated, Prettey Ugly, Possibly Ugly, Perhaps Useless, etc., etc., etc. Also, if you did not circulate a Proof then you would have a PU for Proof-Uncirculated. I would think the Red Book being around since the 40's would be the final word.
