Coin Terminology and Glossary

The Coin Collecting Dictionary includes 546 titles used widely in the coin collectors community, and has received over 1110512 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

DefinitionSearchesPercentage
Specimen Proof (SP-70 or PF-70) 55961  13.27%
Silver Clad 32865  7.79%
Coin Silver 24921  5.91%
Slabbed Coins 23851  5.66%
BN 23424  5.55%
Encapsulated Coin 22360  5.30%
RB 21864  5.18%
PF (PF60, PF70) 18842  4.47%
Deep Cameo (DC or DCAM) 18817  4.46%
Reeded Edge 17673  4.19%
Ultra Cameo (UCAM) 17477  4.14%
Obverse or Face side 16937  4.02%
PR (PR60, PR70) 16810  3.99%
Rarity 16711  3.96%
PQ 16406  3.89%
MS (MS60-MS70) 16108  3.82%
Incuse 15439  3.66%
Coin drop 15265  3.62%
High Relief 15058  3.57%
Reverse Cameo 14796  3.51%