XF or EF (extremely fine)
XF or EF stands for extremely fine: a lightly worn coin with nearly all of its detail sharp and wear only on the high points. It covers two grades on the 70-point Sheldon scale, 40 and 45.
How to read it
PCGS describes extremely fine as nearly full detail with only the high points worn, and puts about 90% of the original detail at EF 40 and about 95% at EF 45. In NGC's standards an XF 45 has complete details with minor wear on some of the high points, and an XF 40 minor wear on most of them. Some luster can remain: the ANA says mint luster at EF 45 is usually seen only in protected areas, such as between the star points and in the letter spaces, and PCGS describes luster still clinging in protected areas. The next grade up is AU 50; below XF 40 is VF 35, which NGC describes as complete details with wear on all of the high points.
Also searched as: EF 40, extremely fine, XF 45.
XF or EF
The two abbreviations are the same grade. The ANA's standards and PCGS write EF, and PCGS gives XF 40 and XF 45 as other names for EF 40 and EF 45; NGC and CAC Grading print XF. An ANA article writes both, "EF-40 or XF-40".
Hard to see at a glance
The ANA calls EF 40 the lowest grade where circulation wear might not be noticed at a glance, though on close inspection EF 40 and EF 45 both show minor wear on the high points.
More coin grades
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Sources
- PCGS Lingo: full listing, PCGS Lingo, full listing (pcgs.com/lingo/ALL; Internet Archive copy of 5 February 2025), Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS), archived by the Internet Archive, Extremely Fine; EF-40; EF-45; XF-40; XF-45
- NGC Coin Grading Scale, NGC Coin Grading Scale (ngccoin.com), Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC), Numeric Grades: XF 45, XF 40, VF 35
- ANA Official Coin Grading Standards, Official Coin Grading Standards (money.org), American Numismatic Association, Circulated Coins: EF-45, EF-40
- Understanding Coin Grading Basics, Understanding Coin Grading Basics (ANA blog, blog.money.org), American Numismatic Association, paragraph on EF-40 and EF-45
- CAC Grading Standards, CAC Grading Standards (cacgrading.com), CAC Grading, Numeric Grades: (XF) Extremely Fine (40-45)
Last reviewed September 29, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research