Coin Terminology and Glossary

The Coin Collecting Dictionary includes 546 titles used widely in the coin collectors community, and has received over 928893 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) 54167  14.01%
Silver Clad 31310  8.10%
Coin Silver 23377  6.05%
Slabbed Coins 22216  5.75%
BN 21738  5.62%
Encapsulated Coin 21013  5.44%
RB 20099  5.20%
Deep Cameo (DC or DCAM) 17399  4.50%
PF (PF60, PF70) 17001  4.40%
Reeded Edge 16111  4.17%
Ultra Cameo (UCAM) 16096  4.16%
PQ 14871  3.85%
MS (MS60-MS70) 14733  3.81%
PR (PR60, PR70) 14715  3.81%
Rarity 14685  3.80%
Incuse 13853  3.58%
High Relief 13607  3.52%
Coin drop 13594  3.52%
Reverse Cameo 13122  3.39%
Obverse or Face side 12881  3.33%