Grading Australian Pre-Decimal Coins - TDK APDC Resource website

Grading AustraIian Coins

I have had several people ask me for information such as ‘charts’, “what do the numbers or letters describing grade mean?”, so I have compiled the following article hoping it will at least act as a starting point.

What is ‘Grading’?

Grading is a description of an item’s “state of preservation”, rather than an overall assessment of the item.

By preservation I mean degree of wear and general aging, or to be more precise, how much a coin has not been worn or aged, relative to it state at initial minting.

Grading alone does not determine value!

Condition refers to broader ‘general attractiveness’ and ‘appeal’ of an item, such as whether there are signs of corrosion (verdigris), pitting, contact damage or marks, staining, grottiness, foreign build-up or an item has been cleaned or altered from it’s original state. These and other 'detractors' should be taken in to consideration when assessing a coin.

Grade, along with condition, desirability, scarcity, and current availabilty, describe ‘collectibility’ (and thus relative value) of an individual coin.

Of course, as with anything, value is only recognised if someone is willing to pay to obtain the item, and the item is made available to them.

OK – so …… Grading?

There are two primary methods, or systems of grading in use dealing with Australian coins:

The American system, which from my understanding is pretty well the ‘world format’.
- Uses letter abbreviations to describe basic ball-park of grade, numbers to refine the grade, and sometimes letters afterwards talking to toning, detractors, and similar
- This method appears to primarily take the approach of starting from ideal, then working backwards (knowing what detail should exist in a particular coin, then determining what is missing), and assumes that the assessor knows what detail should exist in the perfect example of any particular coin. For instance, if a particular date commonly exhibits weaker strike to obverse, then graders take in to account the weak obverse detail as their starting reference for 'the perfect coin'. Effectively a 'top-down' approach.
- Not as frequently used in Australia, unless dealing with coins assessed outside of Australia (generally).
The Australian system adopted by Australian Numismatic Dealer’s Association, (ANDA), specifically to address grading Australian Coins. “ANDA Coin Grading Guide”
- Uses letter abbreviations to describe ball-park of grade, and sometimes a prefix abbreviation to refine the grade.
- Approaches assessment primarily looking at what detail exists, rather than what is missing, or a 'ground-up' approach. Using our earlier example of the weaker obverse strike, it is not necessary, nor as relevant using this method, for an assessor to know the individual coins optimum state relevant to minting. This is not to say that optimum state is ignored - only that there is less emphisis on optimum state.
- Most popular valuation guides in Australia, such as McDonalds or Renniks, use the ANDA grading system when attributing value to a grade.

I will concentrate on the ‘ANDA Coin Grading Guide’ as this is the system I see most commonly referenced dealing with Australian coins, and possibly come back to the American system as time permits.

TDK APDC

Resource website

Grading Australian predecimal coins

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With all of our articles, information provided will evolve as more research is conducted, as information comes to light, and as time permits.

I do not claim to be an authority, just an interested party trying to bring together basic information to get others started.

I would recommend forming your own view based upon several prespectives, research, and developing your own knowledge.

Grading Australian Pre-decimal Coins - Page 1