GRADING
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The grading process is a team effort, with at least two professional numismatists examining every note.
In becoming familiar with market standards for grading, experience in
the commercial sector is an essential ingredient. Conversely, PMG's full-time
graders cannot be involved in the commercial buying and selling of notes.
Each note is examined by one grader at a time, and he enters his grade
(using the Sheldon numerical scale from one to 70, an industry standard)
into the system.
The grading scale utilized by PMG is the one universally accepted within the numismatic community. The following table lists the adjectival and numeric grades:
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| CU 70 | Seventy Gem Uncirculated | |
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| CU 67–69 | Superb Gem Uncirculated | |
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| CU 65–66 | Gem Uncirculated | |
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| CU 63–64 | Choice Uncirculated | |
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| CU 60–62 | Uncirculated | |
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| AU 50, 53, 55, 58 | About Uncirculated | |
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| XF 40, 45 | Extremely Fine | |
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| VF 20, 25, 30, 35 | Very Fine | |
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| F 12, 15 | Fine | |
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| VG 8, 10 | Very Good | |
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| G 4, 6 | Good | |
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| AG 3 | About Good | |
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| FR 2 | Fair | |
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| PR 1 | Poor | |
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| For more detailed information on the PMG Paper Money Grading Scale, please click here. | ||
Some notes fail to make the grade, so to speak. For example, notes which
have a corner missing, are stained or been damaged due to most any adverse
occurrence after leaving the BEP will be net graded. This means that instead
of not grading it, PMG will holder and authenticate it as a "Net Grade".
PMG will specifically state the reason(s) any note is net graded. The
PMG Guarantee does not apply to any net graded note.
