How Rare Is Rare? Rating Rare, Scarce & Common U.S. Coins With The Sheldon-Breen Rarity Scale

Rare U.S. coins are always in demand.

But some some rare coins are more rare than others.

So how do numismatists determine how rare (or common) a specific coin is?

The Coin Rarity Scale

The Sheldon-Breen rarity scale, named for legendary numismatists Dr. William Sheldon and Walter Breen, helps coin collectors discover just how scarce their coins really are.

The Sheldon-Breen rarity scale was devised in 1958. It attempts to rate a coin’s scarcity based on how many coins of a certain date and type are estimated to still exist.

Though, of course, no one can ever really know for sure how many coins survive, estimates can at least give us some idea.

There are 9 levels on the Sheldon-Breen Scale:

• R-8 = A UNIQUE coin… only 1 exists
• R-7 High = A coin that’s excessively rare with only 2 to 3 still existing
• R-7 Low = An extremely rare coin with 4 to 12 remaining known
• R-6 = A very rare coin with 13 to 30 known specimens
• R-5 = Approximately 31 to 75 of these coins exist, classifying it as RARE
• R-4 = A very scarce coin with 76 to 200 examples left
• R-3 = With only 201 to 500 estimated pieces, this is a SCARCE coin
• R-2 = A coin that is not common, with 501 to 1250 coins in existence
• R-1 = A COMMON coin… at least 1,251 coins remain

Remember, the numbers listed above refer to the estimated numbers of coins known to exist!

It’s important NOT to confuse this coin rating scale with the Sheldon Grading Scale — which measures a single coin’s condition and wear (aka “grade).

The Sheldon-Breen Scale estimates the total surviving population for a specific coin or die variety, regardless of what condition those coins are in.

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