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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 3132361, member: 112&quot;]You don&#039;t take anything off for it. What you have to do is understand that scratches are considered damage, and if a coin is damaged then it is ungradeable - it has no grade, cannot be graded. This is one of the bedrock rules of grading.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The answer to this is more subjective, but it is connected to the OP&#039;s question as well. For before you can call it a scratch you first have to determine that it is a scratch. Perhaps a better way to put it would be to say that it qualifies as being a scratch. It&#039;s a matter of severity. In numismatics scratch has a very definitive meaning.</p><p><br /></p><p>To be qualify as being a scratch you have to judge the size, the length, depth, and breadth of the scratch. But it&#039;s even more involved than that for you also have to do that based on the size of the coin in question. The larger the coin the larger the scratch has to be for it to be called a scratch, the smaller the coin the smaller the scratch has to be. And to some degree location can also play a part just as it does with contact marks. And, the number of scratches is also involved in those cases where there is more than one. </p><p><br /></p><p>These are the things involved when judging the severity of a scratch/es.</p><p><br /></p><p>For example, on the OP&#039;s coin there are 2 horizontal scratches as well a vertical scratch. The upper horizontal scratch is too small to say the coin is scratched, IF it were the only one there. The lower horizontal scratch, and the vertical scratch, both by themselves alone, are big enough to qualify as being scratches and thus render the coin ungradeable. And if all three combined are considered, well there is no longer any room for doubt - the coin is definitely scratched. Now rather obviously this is my opinion, but it based on experience, and I have no doubt at all that any TPG would agree. </p><p><br /></p><p>The flip side of this is when a scratch or scratches are not deemed severe enough to be called scratches. When that is the case then they are treated the same as contact marks and they deduct from the grade accordingly based on size, quantity and location.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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