Silver Dollar Blog - Knowing the Sheldon Grading System

Ever wonder what the MS63 or MS60 mean on a graded Morgan Dollar? William Herbert Sheldon thought of a grading system in 1948 for coins. He wanted to standardize coin grading by proposing what we now refer to as the Sheldon Scale.1 is a very poor coin you can barely tell that is a coin, and 70 is perfect!

PO-1 (Poor) you can barely tell it’s a coin with it being damaged or worn, but you can tell the date and type of coin.

FR-2 (Fair) some details are visible, but for the most part extremely worn.

AG-3 (About Good) Worn out spots, but some lettering should be present and readable

G-4 (Good) over all the coin is still heavily warm, but some features and detail can be seen.

VG-8 (Very Good) Most of the legends are clearly readable, but the coin on a whole is still worn. The rim is full with clear features.

F-12 (Fine) The coin is moderately worn, but worn out evenly. All lettering is sharp.

VF-20 (Very Fine) all lettering full and sharp plus some definition of detail

EF-40 (Extra Fine) Slight but obvious wear on the high points, legends are sharp.

AU-50 (Almost Uncirculated) – There must be a little remaining mint luster as well as sharp legends and devices that show only traces of wear on the highest points.

The first part of the scale 1-59 would be circulated coins.

The MS on a coin stands for Mint State. Uncirculated coins are MS60-MS70 on the Sheldon Grading Scale. The grade depends on the sharpness of the strike as well as the number of scratches, nicks, bag marks, etc. A majority of uncirculated Morgan’s will appear around grade M60. Only an extreme few will meet the grade for a M70 since M70 is perfect according to Sheldon’s definition there will be no blemishes at all. M70 also means a sharply struck coin with the die in good condition.