Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="bkozak33, post: 2077573, member: 30309"]I found this interesting The ANA committee that produced the book adopted Dr. William Sheldon’s Numerical Grading System as shorthand for its verbal grades. The Sheldon system had been created in the late 1940s as part of a complicated means of pricing large cents. In brief, its numbers represented the average prices that a common variety, or Rarity-1, 1794 large cent would sell for at that time. A Good coin was worth $4, so the grade became G-4. A Very Good coin was worth $8, so the grade was VG-8. Fine coins might bring $12 or $15, so you got F-12 and F-15. Prices escalated as the grade increased, so you had wider gaps at Very Fine VF-20 and VF-30. However, the populations for 1794 cents decreased severely in the upper grades, so Extremely Fine EF-40 and EF-45 covered the scant census at that level, and About Uncirculated AU-50 and AU-55 covered the coins at that rarified level. Because Dr. Sheldon intended his system to apply to all the large cents of the 1793-1814 era (some of which did come in new condition), he included three Uncirculated grades for the sake of completeness, with the average to slightly better than average uncs at Mint State MS-60, the really nice ones at MS-65, and the theoretically “perfect” coins at MS-70.[/QUOTE]