www.notesoftheworld.com

Our banknote gradings

Our gradings are generally conservative. Our crisp flat uncirculated notes are genuinely flawless uncirculated. Any flaws or detracting features are accurately described. The following explains our grading and abbreviations.

Grade	Abbreviation	Detailed explanation
Poor	Poor	Discoloured, usually torn or with pinholes or pieces missing. No longer attractive and only just collectable.
Good	Good	Mostly intact but with substantial wear and soiling and some visible damage such as pin holes, tears or pen marks. Just collectable.
Very good	VG	Discoloured, possibly stained and well creased from substantial circulation but completely intact. Usually the lowest grade for serious collectors and investors.
Fine	F	Some light discoloration or staining, significant creasing from circulation but completely intact. Looks to be in sound collectable condition. Often the best grade available for rare notes.
Very fine	VF	Light creasing from some circulation but no other detracting stains, marks, heavy folds or paper damage. Will appear reasonably crisp and new and hence highly collectable.
Extremely fine	EF	Close to uncirculated, but probably taken out of circulation after some limited handling. Will show a few very light folds or corner creases but no other destracting flaws. Highly attractive.
About uncirculated	aUnc	Barely used in circulation, if ever. Just the lightest fold or crease or teller flick or foxing reducing the grade from uncirculated. Often the highest grade available in very early paper notes.
Uncirculated	Unc or Ufold	Never used in circulation. But may show a light teller flick mark or a light centre bend from handling at the bank. May also show light edge burring from being bundled with high pressure strapping by the mint or by rubber bands at the bank. Ufold indicates a flawless note apart from the centre bend.
Crisp flat uncirculated	CFU	The highest grade for any banknote. No wear whatsoever, no handling marks, no folds or bends, full original colour, body and crispness.
about	a	Denotes not quite, but almost. For example, aEF is significantly better than VF but not quite EF.
good	g	Denotes better than. For example, gEF is better than EF but not quite aUnc.