Coin Terminology and Glossary

The Coin Collecting Dictionary includes 546 titles used widely in the coin collectors community, and has received over 857714 search inquires.

Selected title: Chop Mark

Explanation: Oriental marks or characters stamped into previously made coins, often found on silver trade dollars and other precious metal coins. When coins were used for trading purposes, an oriental assayer would test a piece of the coin for purity. If it met his approval he would stamp his mark into the coin indicating to others it was pure and accurate weight. Today some collectors specialize in 'Chop marked' coins. However, for many coins the chop marks may hurt the value

Most popular coin titles

Definition	Searches	Percentage
Specimen Proof (SP-70 or PF-70)	52630	14.55%
Silver Clad	30147	8.33%
Coin Silver	22156	6.12%
Slabbed Coins	21026	5.81%
BN	20390	5.64%
Encapsulated Coin	19880	5.50%
RB	18805	5.20%
Deep Cameo (DC or DCAM)	16172	4.47%
PF (PF60, PF70)	15681	4.33%
Reeded Edge	14951	4.13%
Ultra Cameo (UCAM)	14897	4.12%
PQ	13727	3.79%
MS (MS60-MS70)	13591	3.76%
PR (PR60, PR70)	13554	3.75%
Rarity	13182	3.64%
Incuse	12597	3.48%
High Relief	12484	3.45%
Coin drop	12308	3.40%
Reverse Cameo	11840	3.27%
Obverse or Face side	11741	3.25%