Glossary
Collector jargon, translated. 35 terms in plain English.
- bullion
- Coins or bars valued for their precious metal content, like American Silver Eagles, rather than rarity.
- cherrypicking
- Finding a valuable variety or error that the seller didn't notice — buying a $200 doubled die out of a $5 bin.
- circulated
- A coin that shows wear from being used as money.
- clad
- The sandwich construction of modern US dimes, quarters, and halves: a copper core between copper-nickel layers. The copper stripe on the edge is the giveaway.
- coin roll hunting
- Buying rolled coins from banks at face value, searching them for silver, errors, and varieties, and spending back the rest.
- denomination
- The face value of a coin — one cent, five cents, quarter dollar, and so on.
- device
- A raised design element on a coin, like the portrait or the eagle.
- die
- The hardened steel stamp that presses the design into a blank. Two dies (obverse and reverse) strike each coin.
- edge
- The 'third side' of a coin — the surface you see when you look at it from the side. Can be plain, reeded (grooved), or lettered.
- error
- A coin made wrong at the mint — struck off-center, on the wrong blank, missing a layer, etc. One-off accidents, unlike varieties.
- field
- The flat background area of a coin's surface, around the design.
- grade
- A rating of how much wear and how many marks a coin has, from heavily worn (Good) to flawless Mint State.
- junk silver
- Common-date circulated 90% silver coins (pre-1965 dimes, quarters, halves) valued for their metal, not rarity. 'Junk' is affectionate — it's still silver.
- key date
- The rare, expensive date (and mint mark) in a series — the one everyone needs and few can find, like the 1909-S VDB cent.
- legend
- The main lettering on a coin, such as LIBERTY or UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
- loupe
- A small folding magnifier, typically 5x-10x. The coin collector's most-used tool.
- luster
- The original sheen a coin gets from striking — a soft 'cartwheel' glow that sweeps across the surface under light. Cleaning destroys it forever.
- mint mark
- The small letter showing which mint struck the coin — D for Denver, S for San Francisco, etc. No mark usually means Philadelphia.
- mintage
- How many of a coin were struck. Low mintage often (not always) means more valuable.
- numismatics
- The formal name for the study and collecting of coins and money. A collector is a numismatist.
- obverse
- The front or 'heads' side of a coin, usually with the portrait and date.
- patina
- The natural surface color a coin acquires with age, especially the brown of old copper. Part of the coin's originality.
- planchet
- The blank disc of metal a coin is struck on. Errors involving the blank itself are planchet errors.
- proof
- A specially made collector coin struck multiple times with polished dies, giving mirror fields and frosted designs. A method of manufacture, not a grade.
- raw
- A coin that hasn't been professionally graded and slabbed — just the coin itself.
- reeding
- The tiny grooves on the edge of dimes, quarters, and halves. Originally an anti-shaving measure for silver coins.
- reverse
- The back or 'tails' side of a coin.
- rim
- The raised border running around the edge of a coin's face, which protects the design from wear.
- semi-key
- A date that's scarce and carries a premium, but isn't the series' rarest. Worth pulling from circulation.
- slab
- The sealed plastic holder a professionally graded coin comes in, with the grade on the label. Slang for a certified coin.
- strike
- The act of stamping a blank with dies — and also how sharply detailed the result is ('a strong strike').
- toning
- Natural color change (gold, blue, rainbow) as a coin's surface reacts with air over decades. Attractive toning can add value; never try to remove it.
- uncirculated
- A coin with no wear at all — it never passed hand to hand. Also called Mint State (MS).
- variety
- A coin that differs from the normal design because of something on its specific die, like a doubled die or repunched mint mark. Repeats on every coin from that die.
- wheatie
- Collector slang for a Lincoln Wheat Cent (1909-1958), named for the wheat stalks on the reverse. Any wheatie is worth at least a few cents.