Grading

"How do you grade your pins?"
"What's the difference between A, B and C-grade?"

Fret not, I will finally be putting into words how my grading system works!
(Please note that this is how I personally grade my pins, each pinmaker has a different grading system that suits them best.)

First thing's first:

  • Pins are checked under strong white light at close proximity.
  • All pin platings will encompass a light amount of scratches due to the manufacturing process.
  • As the pins are mostly manufactured by hand, there will be varying amounts of flaws and flaw types on each pin.
    This also means that each pin is special and no two pins are the same!
  • Flaws are assessed based on size, location and to what degree they affect the overall look on the pin.

A-Grade

Aside from light surface scratches to the pin plating, pins in this grade generally don't contain any other flaws.

This also means that quantities are very limited and I'll usually have less than 10 of pins in this grade in every batch of 100.

So snag one as soon as you can!

B-Grade

Flaws in pins of this grade are pretty minor. They can only be seen under close scrutiny and do not have any major impact on the overall design.

They include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Specks of unwanted screen print
  • Screen print misalignment
  • Broken plating
  • Screen print scratched off
  • Enamel overfill, enamel damaged
  • Specks in the enamel
  • Specks on the plating

C-Grade

Pins in this grade will tend to have flaws that are either:

  1. Similar to B-Grade but to a larger degree or;
  2. Pretty drastic manufacturing errors

These flaws can usually be seen without much scrutiny.

They include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Foreign materials caught in the stained glass
  • Major scratches on the plating
  • Uneven enamel filling
  • Wrong or missing enamel colours, unwanted paint splatters on the enamel

  • Enamel overflow
  • Major scratches in screen print
  • Unwanted marks on the enamel residing on prime real estate in the design
  • Smudged screen printing

 

Hope this helps paint a better picture of the grading system for my shop to help your decision-making processes!

Happy collecting!