All About Pin Grading
Every shop has their own way of grading their enamel pins. Some shops are very strict about downgrading any flaw they see, while some may not have a grading guide at all. Below is my personal grading guide.
First and foremost, it’s important to know that enamel pins are individually made by hand by a manufacturer. As such there will always be a human element to them. I’m of the personal belief that expecting perfection out of every batch is setting the bar a bit too high- we are human after all!
So how do I grade my pins? Well, the second thing to note is that I am a visually impaired artist. I’m partially blind, and don’t have the best vision in the remaining eye. Small flaws are simply going to escape my vision. With that said, I only utilize two grading tiers with my pins: Standard and Seconds.
Standard pins may have the following:
- Small scratches outside of the focal point
- Small underfills outside of the focal point
- A few pieces of miscolored glitter
- Some enamel staining
- Some bubbles in epoxy
Seconds pins may have the following:
- Larger scratches outside of the focal point
- Larger underfills outside of the focal point
- Small scratches in the focal point
- Small underfills in the focal point
- Large amounts of miscolored glitter
- Large enamel staining
- Large bubbles in epoxy
Larger scratches and underfills that are not the main focal point of the pin. Small scratches and underfills near the focal point of the pin. Any kind of larger discoloring of enamel is an automatic Seconds. Large different colored glitter in a glitter
