How Paper Money Is Graded
Condition sets the price of a collectable note more than anything else — often more than the series, the district, or even the serial number pattern. This guide covers the grading scale, what separates one grade from the next, and how to judge your own notes without fooling yourself.
The 70-point scale
Paper money is graded on the same 1-to-70 numeric scale used for coins, paired with a traditional descriptive name. The number and the name always travel together: "Very Fine 25", "About Uncirculated 55", "Gem Uncirculated 66".
The single most important boundary on the whole scale is the one between About Uncirculated and Uncirculated, because it is the difference between a note that has been folded and a note that has not. Everything below it is a circulated note; everything at or above it never entered circulation.
| Grade | Number | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Poor | 1 | Severely damaged. Pieces missing, heavy staining, tears into the design, possibly repaired with tape. Only worth grading if the note is rare or a significant error. |
| Fair | 2 | Very heavily worn, limp and soiled, with edge damage and small missing pieces, but the design is complete enough to identify. |
| About Good | 3 | Extremely worn. Rounded corners, heavy folds, possible small holes or tears. Fully identifiable. |
| Good | 4–6 | Well used but intact. Many folds, limp paper, rounded corners, soiling. Design fully visible throughout. |
| Very Good | 8–10 | Circulated with numerous folds and creases, some limpness, and possible small edge tears. Still reasonably presentable. |
| Fine | 12–15 | Considerable circulation but the paper retains some body. Many folds, moderate soiling, corners showing wear but not badly rounded. |
| Very Fine | 20–35 | Light to moderate circulation. Several folds, paper still relatively crisp, colours still bright, minor soiling. The most common grade band for notes people find at home in good shape. |
| Extremely Fine | 40–45 | Very light circulation. Typically three light folds or one strong crease. Paper is crisp, corners are sharp or nearly so, and the note looks close to new at arm's length. |
| About Uncirculated | 50–58 | Nearly new, with one light fold, a light counting crease, or a corner bend as the only defect. At AU-58 the flaw can be genuinely hard to find — but it is there, and it is what keeps the note out of the uncirculated range. |
| Uncirculated | 60–64 | No folds or creases at all. The note never circulated. Lower uncirculated grades reflect other issues: off-centre margins, handling marks, a smudge, mild counting-machine contact, or dulled corners. |
| Gem Uncirculated | 65–66 | No folds, bright original paper, sharp corners, and well-balanced margins. This is the level most serious collectors of modern notes aim for. |
| Superb Gem Uncirculated | 67–70 | Essentially flawless: perfect centring, full original embossing, immaculate paper. Grades of 69 and 70 are awarded sparingly, and on older material almost never. |
What graders are actually looking at
A grade is a summary of several separate judgements. Understanding them individually is what lets you predict a grade rather than guess at one.
- Folds and creases. The primary axis. A fold breaks the paper fibres and is permanent; a bend does not and can relax. Hold the note at an angle to a light source and folds show up as lines across the surface. Count them honestly — this is where self-assessment usually goes wrong.
- Paper quality and body. A note that has circulated absorbs oils and moisture and goes soft. Original paper has a distinctive stiffness and a faint snap. Once that is gone it cannot be restored, only faked.
- Corners. Sharp, square corners are one of the first things to go. Rounding is a reliable indicator of handling even when there are no obvious folds.
- Centring and margins. How evenly the design sits within the paper. This is a printing characteristic rather than wear, but it caps the grade: a note with no folds at all will not reach Gem if one margin is very narrow.
- Embossing. The intaglio printing process presses ink into the paper and leaves a raised texture on the face and a corresponding impression on the back. Visible original embossing is strong evidence a note has not been pressed.
- Colour and brightness. Original notes are bright. Fading, toning and yellowing from light or poor storage all cost grade points.
- Problems. Pinholes, staple holes, rust spots, foxing, tape residue, writing, teller stamps, tears and repairs. Any of these caps the grade regardless of how good the rest of the note is, and serious ones lead to a qualified or "net" grade.
EPQ, PPQ, and what the suffixes mean
Alongside the number, graded notes often carry a paper-quality designation. It certifies that the note's paper is original and has not been treated.
- EPQ — Exceptional Paper Quality, used by Paper Money Guaranty (PMG).
- PPQ — Premium Paper Quality, the equivalent designation used on notes graded by PCGS.
The designation matters more than people new to the hobby expect. Two notes graded 64 will not sell for the same money if one is 64 EPQ and the other is a plain 64, because the plain 64 invites the question of why the paper quality was not certified. Between a lower grade with the designation and a higher grade without it, many buyers take the former.
Notes that have been pressed, washed, bleached, sized, repaired or trimmed do not receive a paper-quality designation. Serious processing gets a note labelled explicitly as altered.
Things that destroy value, and are done with good intentions
Do not try to improve a note. Every technique below is detectable by anyone who handles notes professionally, and every one of them reduces what the note is worth — often to less than it would have brought in its original state. There is no home restoration technique that adds value to a banknote.
- Pressing or ironing. Flattening folds does not remove them — the fibres are already broken. It removes the original embossing, which is exactly what a grader checks for. A pressed note is obvious and loses its paper-quality designation.
- Washing or bleaching. Removes soiling and also removes sizing and original colour, leaving paper that looks and feels wrong.
- Trimming. Cutting edges to make them look sharp puts the note outside standard dimensions. Immediately detectable, and it renders the note effectively unsaleable to collectors.
- Tape and glue. Repairs of any kind, including archival tape, cap the grade severely. Tape residue is permanent and often stains over time.
- Erasing pencil marks. Abrades the surface and thins the paper. Leave the mark.
- Storing in PVC. Soft plastic sleeves containing PVC release plasticisers that leach into paper and leave a greasy film that eventually damages it permanently. Use archival, PVC-free holders — Mylar or polypropylene — and store flat, dark, dry, and away from heat.
Should you pay to have a note graded?
Third-party grading gives you an independent opinion, a sealed protective holder, and a note that can be sold sight-unseen. It also costs money — a per-note fee, plus insured shipping in both directions, plus the value of your time.
The arithmetic is straightforward. Grading makes sense when it will either raise the price by more than it costs, or make the note saleable at all.
Usually worth it:
- The note is comfortably worth more than the total grading cost — as a rough rule of thumb, several times it.
- You believe it is uncirculated. The gap between AU-58 and 64 is large, and only certification convinces a buyer which side of the line the note sits on.
- It is a strong fancy serial number — a solid, a ladder, a very low serial — where a buyer needs assurance on condition before bidding seriously.
- It is a scarce variety, a genuine error, or a note where authenticity is a real question, such as a 1935A experimental R or S silver certificate.
- You are selling remotely to buyers who cannot inspect it.
Usually not worth it:
- Common circulated notes. Grading a well-worn 1957 silver certificate costs more than the note will ever be worth.
- Notes with obvious problems — tears, tape, writing, missing pieces — unless the note is rare enough that certified authenticity matters more than grade.
- Notes you intend to keep rather than sell, where a good archival holder does the protective job for a fraction of the price.
- Modern notes pulled from circulation with no pattern or variety of interest.
The main services for US paper money are Paper Money Guaranty (PMG) and PCGS. Both publish current fee schedules and turnaround times; check them before sending anything, and always ship insured.
Grading your own notes: a practical routine
- Work under strong, even light — daylight or a bright lamp, not a dim room. Have clean, dry hands, or wear cotton or nitrile gloves.
- Hold the note at a shallow angle to the light and rotate it. Folds and creases that are invisible face-on appear as distinct lines.
- Count every fold. Write the number down. Three light folds puts you in Extremely Fine territory; one puts you at About Uncirculated; none opens the uncirculated range.
- Check all four corners for rounding and soft tips.
- Hold it to the light to find pinholes, thin spots and repairs that are invisible in reflected light.
- Look at the margins on all four sides. Are they even? Is any part of the design running off the edge?
- Feel the paper. Crisp and stiff, or soft and cloth-like?
- Then grade one level lower than you first thought. Almost everyone over-grades their own notes, and the correction is more often down than up.
Comparing against images of certified notes at known grades is the fastest way to calibrate. Auction archives from the specialist currency houses are full of them, with the grade stated.
Grading questions
What is the difference between AU-58 and Uncirculated 60?
A fold. An AU-58 note has exactly one light fold, counting crease or corner bend; an Unc-60 has none at all. A 58 can look better to the eye than a 60, because a 60 may have poor centring or handling marks while being technically fold-free. But the fold is the dividing line, and it is the one the market prices.
Is a 64 EPQ better than a 65 without the designation?
Often, in practice. A higher numeric grade without a paper-quality designation raises the question of what was wrong with the paper, and many buyers will pay more for the certified-original lower grade. Both numbers matter, but the designation carries real weight.
Can I press a folded note to improve its grade?
No, and it will make things worse. Pressing does not undo a fold, because the paper fibres are already broken. What it does remove is the original embossing from the printing process — one of the first things a grader looks for. A pressed note is readily identified, loses its paper-quality designation, and sells for less than it would have unpressed.
How much does it cost to get a note graded?
Fees vary by service, tier, turnaround time and the declared value of the note, and both major services revise their schedules periodically — check their current published rates rather than relying on a figure quoted elsewhere. Budget for insured shipping both ways as well; on a single inexpensive note the shipping often exceeds the grading fee.
What does a "net" or qualified grade mean?
It means the note has a specific problem that is being called out separately — a repair, a tear, writing, staining, or evidence of processing. The grader assigns a grade reflecting the overall state and appends a note describing the defect. A qualified grade is far better than no grade for a genuinely rare item, but it always sells at a discount to a clean example.
Is a crisp uncirculated note always worth more?
For any note where collectors care about condition, yes, and usually by a wide margin. The exception is errors, where the error itself drives the value and a circulated example can still be worth a great deal. For ordinary common notes, uncirculated condition is what makes them collectable at all.
Related guides
Collecting paper money
Choosing a focus, storage, and the first six months of a collection.
Serial number checker
Find out whether your serial is one of the patterns where grade really pays.
Silver certificates
Where condition makes the largest difference on the notes people find at home.
Damaged currency
When a note is too far gone to collect, it may still be redeemable at face value.
Sources and notes
- Grade names, numeric ranges and paper-quality designations follow the published standards of the major third-party paper money grading services.
- Storage guidance follows standard archival practice for paper artefacts: PVC-free enclosures, stored flat, dark, dry and cool.
- No grading fee figures are quoted here deliberately — they change, and the services publish current rates directly.
A grade assigned at home is an estimate. Only a third-party grading service can assign a grade that the market treats as authoritative.