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FDC is actually a description of over all quality, rather than a grade, but it best fits under this heading. The initials are short for "Fleur De Coin" which is French for "flower of the die", and describes a coin that is virtually perfect in all ways. It can have no wear to either the coin or the die it was stuck from, and so is a Mint State coin,, but it is more than that. It must also be struck on a flan large enough to take the entire design (included any borders), with the designs fully die transfered to the flan with no weakness. It must also be perfectly centered, on a fairly round flan, with no damage from the time it spent in the ground. Ancient coins of this quality are exceptionally rare, and command accordingly very high prices relative to other examples of the same type. You may go many years without seeing a coin of this quality, although you will probably see many coins offered with a claim that they are FDC quality.
click on image for enlargement
This Kozan stater is one of the few ancient coins I have owned in recent years that makes the grade of FDC, although it is difficult to show this on an image. There is no actual wear, die wear, or weakness in the strike, and while a couple of the border beads touch the edge, none are actually off the edge. The style while slightly crude, but that is normal for the issue. The only way it could be improved is if the obverse were centered very slightly more to the top left so that there was a bit of a blank border around the entire design (the coin is actually somewhat nicer than the image suggests).
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