4608 Coin Investing & Collecting Glossary – Blanchard and Company, Inc.
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Glossary - An Introduction to Coin Investing & Collecting

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A

About Good:
Very heavily worn coin with portions of lettering, date and legends worn smooth; date may be barely readable on the coin.
About Uncirculated:
A coin with traces of light wear on many of the high points. Design details are very sharp, with most mint luster still evident.
Adjustment marks:
Scratches which appear mostly on pre-1807 silver and gold coinage. These scratches were file marks, made at the mint in order to reduce the weight of a coin so that its metal value wouldn't exceed its face value. As such, adjustment marks do not reduce the value of a coin nearly as much as series of equally visible scratches which were not "mint caused."
Ag:
Chemical symbol for silver.
Alloy:
Metal made by combining two or more metals. Any silver or gold of less than .999 purity is an alloy.
Altered date (or mint mark):
The illegal practice of modifying a date or mint mark on a common coin to make it appear to be a rare coin.
ANA:
Abbreviation for the American Numismatic Association. The ANA is the world's largest organization of coin collectors and dealers. It is a non-profit organization chartered by an Act of Congress in 1912.
Annealing:
The softening of planchets by heat followed by slow cooling. Annealing makes the planchets more easily struck.
Apparent wear:
A coin may appear to have more wear than it actually has, due to poorly made dies or the prolonged use of worn dies.
Arbitrage:
The simultaneous purchase of currency, securities or goods in one market and their sale in another market to take advantage of a price difference.
Ask:
The price that a seller is willing to take in order to effect the sale of a coin.
Assay:
A test to determine the metallic content.
Au:
Chemical symbol for gold.
AU:
See "About Uncirculated."
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