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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;medoraman, post: 1340213, member: 26302&quot;]And I understand what you are saying. I will clarify:</p><p><br /></p><p>For ancient collectors we do not make a differentiation as to whether the coin is as it was the day it left the mint. We do not even worry about it. Since so many things can go wrong with hand striking, a perfect specimen is a rarity, not expected. Therefor, we simply grade based upon the level of perfection the coin could have been. If a coin left the mint as a weakly struck, offcenter coin, even if the coin was struck today the best grade we would give it would be VF.</p><p><br /></p><p>Contrast that with US coinage. Since we strike with machines, we expect near perfection. Therefor, each coin is labelled as uncirculated the day it leaves the mint. If there are details missing due to weak strike or worn dies, its still uncirculated, its just these causes for missing detail are noted. If its an offcenter strike, since they are so rare, they are called erros and their value usually is higher than a properly struck coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>Basically US collectors accept perfection as &quot;normal&quot;. Ancient collectors are shocked if we ever see perfection. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> They are just two completely different grading systems with different assumptions made. Personally I like my grading system better than the US one, as I think they made a serious error when they said a weakly struck coin is still BU, but that happened long ago and probably unchangable now.</p><p><br /></p><p>Chris[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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