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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;NPCoin, post: 362999, member: 5629&quot;]Key phrase: &quot;According to the ANA Grading Standards&quot;&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>There are a number of &quot;standards&quot; that have been used over the years.&nbsp; Not even the TPGs firmly follow the ANA &quot;official standards&quot;.&nbsp; It&#039;s at a point with the ANA now that they do not even publish them as an official &quot;standard&quot;, but as simply a &quot;guideline&quot;, which is completely different.</p><p><br /></p><p>Yeoman is considered by many to be more than just a little well versed in the market and grading.&nbsp; There are many who even utilize the Red Book as a grading guide, much as those who utilize the ANA &quot;Standard&quot; as a guide.</p><p><br /></p><p>But &quot;extra fine&quot; is very much a true and valid term for E(x)F or XF.&nbsp; As far back as pre-dating the ANA &quot;Standard&quot; by two decades, Yeoman&#039;s Blue book defines the grading terminology as &quot;Extra (or Extremely) Fine&quot;.&nbsp; Pre-dating the ANA &quot;Standard&quot; by over a decade, the Brown and Dunn grading guide attributed the grade of Extremely Fine with &quot;XF&quot;.&nbsp; Within a decade after the introduction of the ANA &quot;Standard&quot;, the use of the term Extremely Fine along with the notation &quot;ExF&quot; or &quot;EF&quot; became a standard in the varied grading guides.</p><p><br /></p><p>Personally, I believe the &quot;standardization&quot; of &quot;EF&quot; was possible because the ANA published its grading as an industry standard rather than simply guidelines.&nbsp; With the advent of a plethora of grading standards ala the TPGs, et al., &quot;EF&quot; may very well soon become just as much equivalent to what we determine today as a VF or AU.&nbsp; Without a common standard, or at least the publication and dissemination of standards used by the various TPGs and sellers, it doesn&#039;t matter if we use EF, XF, or even EF*, it&#039;ll mean something completely different depending on who you are dealing with.</p><p><br /></p><p>Anyway...now that I&#039;ve had my joyride and returned the thread...</p><p>...I use both XF and EF freely.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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