5.8 inch Georgian C. Megalodon tooth

This is a quality 5.8 inch C. megalodon tooth from Georgia. I would grade this tooth as a solid 3.0 out of a possible 4.0 on my personal grading scale.

Grading scale you might ask? Well, I think it is important for collectors who purchase many of their fossilized sharks teeth to develop their own non-biased grading system for the quality of a tooth. With the tooth grade, location, and size, you can get a pretty good feel for the market prices over time. Location and size are objective/constant variables of a tooth that will not change, but the "quality" or "grade" of a tooth can be somewhat subjective. So, I find it helpful to look for the same morphologic features in every tooth (ie. root, enamel, bourlette, serrations, tip, tooth position, etc.). I then grade the tooth on a scale between 1.0 being the lowest quality and 4.0 being the highest and nearly flawless top 1% of teeth. I have some set parameters of what a grade 1 vs. grade 2 vs, grade 3, vs grade 4 should have or not have. As long as you are consistent in your grading scheme, it seems to work pretty well. I hate to admit it, but I even take it a step further and collect the data from my purchases, other people's ebay auctions, and other people's purchases from dealers. I keep this in an excel file that I can add to and reference. So at any given time, I can look up a 5.8" grade 3 megalodon tooth from Georgia , or a 5.4" grade 2.5 Lee Creek megalodon tooth, etc., and see what others or even myself previously paid for it. Crazy, I know!!