Glossary
Gem Mint
Also called: PSA 10, gem mint 10
Gem Mint, graded PSA 10, is the top grade on PSA's ten-point scale: four sharp corners, full original gloss, and front centering no worse than about 55/45.
PSA's published standard for GEM-MT 10 requires four perfectly sharp corners, sharp focus, full original gloss and freedom from staining, with centering within approximately 55/45 on the front and 75/25 on the reverse.
Centering is the criterion that surprises people. A card can be flawless in every physical respect and still miss a 10 because the printing was off-centre when it left the factory — nothing an owner does or avoids doing can change that.
The gap between a 9 and a 10 is often the entire value of a card, which is why submission handling matters so much and why grading companies are particular about how cards arrive.
Other graders use their own scales and their own thresholds; a 10 from one company is not automatically equivalent to a 10 from another.