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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;nerosmyfavorite68, post: 24859892, member: 134416&quot;]Here&#039;s my c. 1990 (ancients) grade scale.&nbsp; Also, when I started out in the early 1990&#039;s, I was also reading my dad&#039;s 1960&#039;s and 1970&#039;s coin books.</p><p><br /></p><p>EF.&nbsp; I didn&#039;t have any bulletproof, classic EF&#039;s photographed. I certainly have photographed coins with AU or EF <b>wear.</b> EF is all details present, pretty darn close to mint state.&nbsp; *Old-school EF would also put coins EF by wear, but striking issues, etc., in VF.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>--------</p><p>On to the other grades,</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1594154[/ATTACH]</p><p>VF</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1594155[/ATTACH]</p><p>&nbsp;The aqua Gordian III could certainly pass for modern VF.&nbsp; It also fits the David Van Meter definition of &#039;two-thirds of the hair visible.&#039;&nbsp; My personal grade was aVF.&nbsp; I purchased it for the wonderful patina.</p><p><br /></p><p>---</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1594157[/ATTACH]</p><p>Fine, the better end of fine.&nbsp; It&#039;s a really handsome coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1594160[/ATTACH]</p><p>Fine, although a bold Fine.&nbsp; The Savoca listing rated it VF, and it&#039;s probably a modern VF.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1594161[/ATTACH]</p><p>regular Fine.</p><p><br /></p><p>----</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1594162[/ATTACH]</p><p>VG</p><p><br /></p><p>----</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1594166[/ATTACH]</p><p>Good</p><p><br /></p><p>---</p><p>Fair would be the reverse of the above As, or even a bit worse, barely anything present.</p><p><br /></p><p>--</p><p>Poor.&nbsp; A slick.</p><p><br /></p><p>And these are just &#039;classic&#039; examples, without getting into the rabbit-hole of chips, surface problems, bad strike, tooling, smoothing, etc.</p><p><br /></p><p>My favorite of the lot is the aqua Gordian III.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Like most rank-and-file ancient collectors, I&#039;m just in it for the enjoyment, not resale value. Stated grade is becoming less valuable to many ancient collectors (except for high-end auctions).[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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