This numismatic glossary makes coin collecting lingo easy to reference. Numismatics is the study of coinage and paper currency. The vocabulary used by coin collectors, dealers, hoarders and investors can sound like so much numismatic gobledegook. This glossary includes condition and grading terms, miscellaneous coin collecting vocabulary terms, slang terminology, notable numismatists and well-known or smaller numismatic magazines, price sheets and other publications.

• C: C is the mintmark identifying coins struck at the branch mint at Charlotte, North Carolina, which only struck coins made of gold.

• C-Mint: The gold coins struck at the mint at Charlotte.

• CC: Mintmark signifying coins struck at the branch mint at Carson City, Nevada.

• CC-Mint: Coins struck at the mint at Carson City.

• Cabinet Friction: Coins stored in old wooden cabinets were sometimes dusted, yielding slight hairlines or other minor damage.

• Cameo (CAM, or Cameo Proof): Proofs and prooflike coins often display frosted lettering or devices against a background of brilliant fields--they, and coins with other variations on the contrasting, are referred to as cameo proof.

• Capped Bust: A variation on a bust designed by John Reich in which Miss Liberty wears a cap.

• Capped Die: A die damaged by a jammed coin, producing an error on the coin.

• Carbon Spot: Brown or black oxidation spots appearing usually on copper or gold coins, but sometimes on U.S. nickel coins or silver coins.

• Carson City Mint: The Carson City, Nevada branch mint that from 1870 to 1893 made gold and silver coins that are quite popular amongst coin collectors.

• Cartwheel: Either slang for "silver dollar" or a type of luster pattern resembling wheel spokes, seen on frosted Mint State coins.

• Cast Blanks: Planchets manufactured by using a mold, as opposed to cutting.

• Cast Counterfeit: A counterfeit coin made by casting using molds of the obverse and reverse of a genuine coin, often with a visible edge seam.

• Castaing Machine: A machine that was eventually superseded by the use of close collar dies, used to put in lettering and devices on the edges of coins.

• Catalog: A print-out of a list of coins offered for sale.

• Cent: A denomination worth one-hundredth of a dollar. The U.S. mint began striking cent coins in 1793.

• Census: A list inventorying all the known specimens of a particular coin in existence.

• Certificate of Authenticity: A document issued by the original issuing mint stating that a particular coin is genuine.

• Certified: Authenticated by a grading service, demonstrating the coin as genuine and including documentation to that effect.

• Certified Coin Dealer Newsletter (or The Bluesheet): The price list for coins published for dealers that includes sight unseen prices for coins that have been certified. (The Coin Dealer Newsletter also issues the Greensheet, which lists prices for paper money, ande the Graysheet or Greysheet, which includes those not certified, too

• Certified Coin Exchange: A trading system run by the American Teleprocessing Company.

• Chapman Proof: Coins, specifically 1921 Morgan dollar Proofs, reputed to be struck for Henry Chapman, a coin dealer.

• Charlotte Mint: Branch mint in Charlotte, North Carolina, which minted gold coins from locally recovered gold ore from 1838 to 1861.

• Chasing: The forging of a mintmark on a coin, with the use of heat and instruments to move (rather than remove) the gold, silver, platinum or other metal.

• Cheerios Dollar: In 2000, 5,500 2000-P Sacagawea Dollars were put in the boxes of the breakfast cereal, Cheerios, to promote the new golden dollar coin. Certain details of the design were said to be unique to those coins struck for Cheerios boxes.

• Choice: Modifies a grading term for emphasis. Choice Uncirculated, for example, signifies that the coin is a very nice example of the Uncirculated grade.

• Chop Marks: Oriental characters stamped into silver trade dollars and other silver and gold coins by an assayer for the coins' use in trade. The marks may either raise or lower the value of the coins.

• Circulated (or Circulation): Descriptive of a coin used in commerce with light to heavy wear.

• Circulation Strike (or Regular Strike or Business Strike): A coin struck to be used as legal tender in commerce (rather than as a collector's item).

• Clad Coin: A clad coin has two layers: an inner core and an outer cladding. Two different metals, either pure or metal alloys, are used. Since 1965, coins in circulation in the U.S. are clad, with a copper-nickel alloy surrounding a copper core.

• Clad Bag: A $1,000 bag containing 40% silver half dollars, which are clad coins, or any bag of clad coins.

• Clashed Dies: Dies damaged by "empty striking." When no blank is there during the striking, the dies' images get distorted by each other.

• Classic Era: 1792 to 1964. The period of time before clad coins became the norm, when the U.S. mint issued silver and gold coins. Gold coins stopped being minted after 1933.

• Classic Head: A John Reich Miss Liberty motif designed with a classic Greek or Roman appearance and a band of ribbon around her hair.

• Cleaned: Descriptive of a coin that has had toning or dirt deliberately removed from its surface. Generally something that devalues the coin and may make it ineligible to be certified.

• Clip: The slang term for a coin that results when the dies strike a clipped blank.

• Clipped: A planchet / blank that is cut not perfectly round (or the intended shape).

• Clogged Die: A die whose recesses have gotten filled with a substance, producing coins that have blurred or nonexistent edges in the design.

• Close Collar (or Collar Die): Edge device encompassing the lower die, effecting grooves or a smooth edge.

• Coin: A disk of formed or cast metal imparted with a design and qualified to circulate as an item of legal tender.

• Coinage: The issuance of coins of a certain country.

• COINage: A magazine featuring numismatic topics issued monthly.

• Coin Dealer Newsletter (or Greysheet): A price sheet for U.S. coins issued weekly.

• Coin Doctor: A derogatory term for somebody who secretly tries to "improve" a coin by altering it. As opposed to a conservationist, who does this openly and without intended deception.

• Coin Friction: The section of a coin that has been worn as the result of other coins rubbing against it in bags or rolls. .

• Coin Show (or Bourse): A convention in which numismatic experts, collectors and coin dealers mix for trade, sale and information exchange.

• Coin Silver: In the U.S., refers to the 90% silver, 10% copper silver alloy used in coins prior to the 1965 switch to clad coins.

• Coin World: Weekly periodical begun in 1960.

• Coins Magazine: Monthly journal of numismatic subjects.

• Collar (or Collar Die): The piece of metal that holds a blank in place while it's being struck by the dies. These days, it serves another role--to impart the edge pattern onto the planchet.

• Collector: A person who collects a systematic group of coins, as opposed to a (nonsystematic) hoard.

• Colonial: Coins struck during the colonial period in the U.S.

• Colorized Coin: A coin "enhanced" by color, either during the original minting or afterward, after it's been circulated. The application of color may occur from decal fusing or from being painted.

• Commemorative (or Commem, or Non-Circulating Legal Tender Commemoratives): Coins whose issue is in honor of a famous personage, place or event, generally with the purpose of raising money.

• Common: A coin that's easy to obtain on the market.

• Common Date: An issue of a coin that's relatively easy to get compared to others in the series (but not necessarily compared to other series.)

• Complete Set: All coins of a certain type, or all coins from a certain branch Mint, or all coins issued within a particular series, collected together. A term for all possible coins within a series, all types, or all coins from a particular branch Mint. Examples would include a complete set of a series.

• Condition: A coin's state of preservation.

• Condition Census: A census of the finest known coins, usually a list of 5 to 10.

• Condition Rarity: The state of a coin being rare not by virtue of its rarity, but by virtue of its uncommonly good condition.

• Consensus Grading: The grading process in which more than one grader authenticates a coin.

• Consignment: The coins placed with a dealer or auction house to be sold.

• Contact Mark: A mark smaller than a gouge caused by contact with other objects, such as other coins.

• Contemporary Counterfeit: A counterfeit coin produced to pass as legal tender at the time it was in use--i.e., fake money (rather than a counterfeit of a collectible coin). Some contemporary counterfeits are considered collectible.

• Continental Dollars: Well-circulated coins from 1776. Those made of pewter are scarce, of brass are rare, and of copper or of silver are extremely rare.

• Copper Spot: A tarnish dot or blotch on a gold alloy coin.

• Copper-Nickel (or Cupro-Nickel): The pale-colored metal alloy comprised of 12 percent nickel and 88 percent copper used for U.S. Flying Eagle and Indian cents from 1856 to 1864.

• Copper Nickel Cent: The "white cent"--the Indian cent made with the copper-nickel alloy from 1859 to 1864.

• Copy: A reproduction of a coin.

• Copy Dies: Either dies made from a genuine coin for the purposes of counterfeiting, or dies made after the originals.

• Corrosion: Chemical damage occurring mostly with copper and nickel and silver coins in circulation.

• Counterfeit: Any coin that is not genuine, either because of being altered or because it is fraudulently cast as a copy of a genuine coin.

• Counterstamp: An impression deliberately imparted on a coin after leaving the mint facility. It may either increase or lower its value--the former happened with the famous counterstamp given by Ephriam Brasher.

• Counting Machine Mark: Damage caused by counting machines to coins. Frequently found on Buffalo nickels, Saint-Gaudens double eagles, Walking Liberty half dollars, Morgan dollars and Peace dollars.

• Crackout: A coin that has been removed from the plastic holder placed around it by a grading service.

• Crossover (or Cross Over as a verb): Descriptive of a coin assigned the same grade by two independent grading services.

• Cud: A section of a coin where there is extra metal caused by a broken die.

• Cull: A coin that is in very bad shape, worse than a grade of poor.

• Currency: any item, such as coins, bills or notes, that serves as a medium of exchange.