Coin Collecting Glossary of Terms: A to B

A coin collecting glossary can help you understand the lingo spoken in the field of numismatics. Numismatics is the scientific, professional or amateur study of coins, bills, tokens, and other forms of currency. Coin collectors, coin investors, and coin dealers use a specialized vocabulary when they talk about the properties, history and value of coins. Besides coin collecting lingo, this exhaustive numismatic glossary includes numismatic abbreviations, names of famous coins, grading terminology, slang terms, important people, and numismatic organizations and publications. Enjoy this lexicon of definitions of common coin collecting terms as you explore the rewarding world of the study and collection of coins.

• About Good (AG): This grading term refers to a low grade that is lower than good, describing a coin that has lots of wear but still shows some design and a legible date.

• About Uncirculated (or Almost Uncirculated): Coins graded as About Uncirculated look nearly new but display minor dulling of the luster and wear to the design upon closer examination.

• Abrasian: tiny marks or scratches on a coin attributable to erosive contact with other objects.

• Accumulation (or Hoard): A grouping of coins that is not systematic, or a grouping by one set of parameters--date, series or type.

• Adjustment Marks: File marks made before a coin was struck, appearing on gold and silver coins before the year 1840, with the purpose of removing metal from blanks.

• Ag: The elemental symbol for silver.

• Actual Gold Weight (AGW): The quantity of pure gold contained in an alloyed gold object such as a coin.

• Album Friction: Faint rubbing on the high points of a coin made by friction with a coin album.

• Album Slide Marks: Streaks on a coin resulting from album sliding.

• Alloy: a blended mixture of at least two metals that have been melted together.

• Altered Date: The numerals representing the date on a coin that were altered by someone to resemble other numerals, often with the aim to "impersonate" a more valuable coin.

• American Eagle: The American Eagle coins, each displaying an eagle on the reverse, have been minted since 1986, when the first ones, which were silver bullion, sold for $1. They are made of gold, platium, or silver. The American Eagle gold bullion coins are very popular.

• American Numismatic Association (ANA): Since its beginnings in 1888, the biggest educational non-profit organization of coin collectors and numismatic experts in the U.S. The ANA still offers authentication services but no longer grades coins.

• American Numismatic Association Certification Service (ANACS, or ANA Certification Service): The oldest grading service in the U.S., now operated by an independent third party.

• American Numismatic Association Certification Service (ANACS) Certificate: A certificate establishing the authenticity and grade offered by ANACS.

• Ancient: Describes a coin struck during the millennium before 500 A.D., before the medieval period.

• Annealing: The heating of a blank (planchet) to make the metal pliable before striking.

• Anvil Die: The fixed lower die impression. The anvil die is generally the reverse die, and of a better quality striking than the upper die.

• Approval Service: A service offering collectible coins for sale by sending them to customers by mail. Customers then send back what they don't want. An example is the Littleton Coin Company.

• Arrows: Design motif appearing in the eagle's claw typically on U.S. coins. As of 1807, most often just 3 arrows appear.

• Arrows and rays: From 1853, the half dollars and quarters. Starting the next year, the rays were left out.

• Arrows at Date: The design motif specifically appearing on either side of the date, marking a change of coin weight.

• Artificial Toning: intentional chemical- or heat- induced coloring of the surface of a coin.

• Ask Price (or Ask): The price of a coin quoted on a price list or otherwise advertised material.

• Assay: An analysis of how pure an alloy is.

• Attributes: Features, such as marks, hairlines, strike, luster, and eye appeal, which are assessed in the grading of a coin.

• Au: the chemical symbol representing gold

• Auction: A variable-priced sale of coins in which interested buyers or their agents bid against each other, with one winner per auction lot who has the right, and obligation, to buy the coin or coin lot at the winning bid amount.

• Authentication: The process by which a coin is established to be genuine.

• Bag: The cloth bags used to hold coins, which began to be used in the middle of the 1800s.

• Bag Marks: Nick marks on coins resulting from contact with other coins, usually as they are being transported, even when the wear didn't occur when they were being stored in a bag.

• Bag Toning: The often attractive leaching of color from a bag to a coin, largely because of the chemicals in the material of the bags such as sulfur. There may be more than one color transferred and there may be a pattern associated with it. Appeared on Morgan silver dollars.

• Bank-Wrapped Rolls (OBW): Coin rolls left intact after being wrapped in mint rolls at a Federal Reserve Bank mint.

• Bar: A rectangular ingot made of a precious metal--commonly gold or silver, varying in weight from a single gram to hundreds of pounds.

• Barber Coinage: The Liberty Head coins (dimes, quarters, half dollars) designed by Charles Barber. These coins were struck from 1892 through 1916.

• Basal State: A condition in which a coin can only be identified by the date mint mark and type.

• Basal Value: The lowest value on the grading scale of William H. Sheldon.

• Baseball Cap Coin: This slang term is used for a Pan-Pac gold dollar coin, a commemorative coin.

• Basining: Die polishing to achieve a mirrored surface or remove die-caused defects.

• Beaded Border: Before the appearance of dentils, the pattern of tiny round "beads" edging a coin, appearing on early American coins.

• Bid: The quotation offered at auction or in a trading network or in any sales venue by a potential buyer.

• Bidder: A potential coin buyer who is offering a bid.

• Bidder Number: The number auction houses assign to bidders and others who participate in auctions.

• Bit: One eighth of a dollar, as in the phrase, "For two bits, I'd..." Derived from the practice of cutting the Spanish Milled Dollar into eight slices.

• Blank (or Planchet): A coin before it has become a coin--a flat, patternless, "blank" disk of metal that is later struck by dies and fashioned into a coin.

• Blemish: A defect on a coin's surface.

• Blended: Blending occurs when design, date, or lettering elements on a coin are worn away or blended into the adjacent field.

• Bluebook: An annually printed pricing book listing wholesale prices that traditionally has a blue cover.

• Body Bag: In informal usage, body bag refers to a coin of questionable quality or authenticity that has been classified "no-grade" by a grading service and is now encased in a plastic sleeve inside a flip.

• Bourse: A coin show, which takes place on a "bourse floor," or the expanse of exhibit space.

• Boy Wonder: Informal slang meaning a new, quickly-rising, successful coin dealer.

• Braided Hair: A design element on half cents and large cents since 1840, in which the hair is braided into a cord and rolled in a bun.

• Branch Mint (BM): A U.S. mint other than the Philadelphia Mint. Generally applies to Branch Mint Proof coins, for example, the 1893-CC BM Proof Morgan dollar.

• Breast Feathers: The quality of the central, or breast, feathers on the eagle design contributes largely to the value of coins, since as the highest point on the reverse, the breast feathers can have the most striking flaws and experience other wear.

• Breen, Walter: A well-known science fiction fan and author of Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins (1988). The Walter Breen Encyclopedia was the "positive" side of the coin; he was a controversial figure who died in prison in 1993.

• Breen Letter: Walter Breen issued documents stating his opinion on a coin, such as a branch-mint Proof, which was accepted by those in numismatic circles.

• Breen-Gillio: Identification numbering system created by authors Walter Breen and Ron Gillio in their book about California fraction gold coins.

• Brilliant: A coin with full luster that has light toning, if any.

• Brilliant Uncirculated: A term in grading describing a shiny coin that has never been circulated in commerce.

• Brockage: A particular kind of error of minting in which part or all of the die impression of an image meant for another coin appears on a coin. A brockage may or may not raise the value of a coin.

• Bronze: A yellow-colored metal alloy consisting of copper, tin and zinc.

• Brown (BN): A grading term describing a copper coin that has tarnished to any of various shades of brown.

• BU Rolls: Brilliant Uncirculated rolls of coins wrapped separately in standard sizes according to denomination.

• Buckled Die: A warped die, yielding coins that are buckled or bent on at least one side.

• Buffing: A form of cleaning with abrasives; generally, someone would polish a coin in the hopes of mimicking a mint luster. However, the value of the coin is lowered by buffing.

• Bulged Die: A die damaged from clashing and yielding a dent in coins it strikes.

• Bullion: Precious metal (gold, silver, or platinum) objects valued approximately at the current value of the respective metal--that is, the shape or form of the object doesn't change its value much.

• Bullion Coin: A coin issued as legal tender with a trading value of slightly more than its metal market value.

• Bureau of Engraving and Printing: The agency of the U.S. Department of the Treasury that prints paper money, securities, awards certificates, identification cards, and other governmental "print jobs." They do not mint coins.

• Burnished: Depending on the context, either 18th century planchets burnished before striking and used for special coins, or descriptive of coins cleaned using abrasion (whizzed) once they leave the mint.

• Burnishing: The polishing or rubbing of a blank. If done before striking, burnishing is considered a good thing; if done to "restore" the coin or alter it, burnishing lowers the value of the coin.

• Burnishing Lines: The lines appearing on open-collar Proofs as part of the fields.

• Burnt: Referring to a coin that's dull due to overdipping.

• Bust: Usually, Liberty's head and shoulders.

• Bust Dollar: Informal slang for the silver dollar coins struck from 1795 to 1803.

• Business Strike (or Regular Strike): A coin struck for commerce and placed into circulation, as opposed to a proof.