Free guide
What the grade means, what the label is telling you, and what to check before you spend four figures.
Written out of the coins we have handled, with every mintage in it read off a label and every coin photographed in the holder it arrived in. The guide shows you how to read those holders yourself.
- What a grade is an opinion about, and what it is not
- A certification label read line by line
- How to verify any coin yourself in half a minute
- What a dealer looks at when buying one back
16 pages
What is in it
- 01
Why the coin is in a holder at all
What a grading service does, what it does not, and why the holder exists to stop an opinion drifting.
- 02
The two scales: PF and MS
Proof and mint state are different ways of striking a coin, not better and worse ones. Both run to seventy.
- 03
What seventy means
No imperfection at five times magnification — and an honest account of where the step from sixty-nine to seventy actually sits.
- 04
Ultra Cameo, Deep Cameo, DPL
Frosted device against a mirror field, how the contrast arises, and why it fades across the life of a die.
- 05
Reading the label, line by line
One holder photographed large and annotated: year, denomination, issue, grade, designation and certification number.
- 06
First Releases and signed labels
What they are, and what they add to a coin that the coin itself does not.
- 07
Verifying a coin yourself
Half a minute with the certification number and the grading service's own lookup.
- 08
What makes one example harder to find
Edition limit, mintage and graded population — three different numbers, with the published figures.
- 09
The series worth knowing
The Great Engravers, the British Monarchs, the Royal Tudor Beasts, the lunar issues, the five pound crown and the sovereign.
- 10
Tax, in plain English
Why UK legal tender gold is exempt from Capital Gains Tax, and why investment gold carries no VAT.
- 11
Selling it again
What a dealer looks at when buying back, and why an intact holder matters more than people expect.
- 12
The checklist
One page, worth printing. Everything above reduced to what to confirm before you pay.
The guide explains how coins are graded and sold. It is not investment or tax advice, and it does not forecast what any coin will be worth. More in the library