I see a lot of posts where people ask, how much is a 1911 Pig Rupee or how much is a 1936 1/4 Anna. But rarely do I hear someone qualifying the coin in terms of grade. Depending on the grade of the coin the coin can be worth anywhere between the price of silver to a 10's and thousands of rupees. Grade is such an important thing! So I want to take a few minutes to let everyone know my thoughts about grade.
What is Grade?
Depending on how unchanged and unscratched and uncleaned the coin has been since the time it has been minted, the coin is given a grade. There are different ways in which grades are measured. The most famous one is the Sheldon scale. It is a number from 1-70. Where 1 is barely identifiable to 70 which is a perfect coin. The probability of a coin just minted by the mint being graded 70 is one in a few thousand coins. For more information about Sheldon's grading see here.
www.coins.about.com/od/coingrading/f/sheldon_scale.htm
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coin_grading#The_Sheldon_rarity_scale
How can I tell what grade my coins is?
It requires a lot of practice and experience but a good place to start is getting an idea how a coin in each grade will look like. Here is a link about all US coins and pictures of each coin in every grade. This will give you an idea about how each grade looks like. I use this article as a baseline for grading my coins.
Remember that a shiny coin is not always a higher grade, look for scratches and evidence of cleaning. Get a magnifying glass and notice the surface of the coin. It should not have scratches from cleaning whic is different from scratches from clashing with other coins(this is called bagmarks). See how the dust is spread across the coin. See if there is something unnatural about the coin.
Coin should never never never be cleaned. The moment it gets cleaned or even touched, the surface starts reacting with your bodily oils and starts getting destroyed. Always use a cotton glove to handle coins if you want to maintain the pristine state of the coin. Do not store the coin in any plastic cover because the plastic contains PVC that could damage the coin and make it go bad in a few years. Do not put it in water or use a toothbrush to clean it or tamarind or anything else.