Coins In "Good" Condition

Yes, I remember the first time I looked at the Red Book and there was "Good" looking not good at all. LOL I was completely unfamiliar with the terms AU, BU, PL, etc.

The thing is that I had read some coin magazines when I was a kid but grading coins didn't mean much until I got serious about collecting.

When I was a kid and purchased a thing called the Red Book and looked up some coins. I found that the worst grade used was G for Good. Then I looked at what they and others said was GOOD. Good to most ment a bit better than lousy, horrible or miserable. Never could figure out who or why this was started. To me GOOD means GOOD, not lousy.

The numismatic definition of "good" as "well, it's pretty bad, actually" does trip up many newcomers to the hobby.

The reason why we use "good" this way is historic. Way back when coin collecting was beginning, during the Renaissance, "Good" actually did mean "pretty good". The original grade levels were Poor, Fair, Good and Fine. And for ancient Greek and Roman coins (which was all anyone collected back then) found by accident in the age before metal detectors, these were all the grading levels they needed. As coin collecting progressed and as coin production technology improved, grades ever higher than "Fine" had to be invented, as well as interstitial grades in between the original four.

Gradeflation has happened since, as well. Today's "Very Fine" coin would have been called "Good" 300 years ago.