Need help to grade a note?

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Hi,

I have a 1954 BOC note. The note is crisp, the colors are not faded or worn. The note has not been processed or washed. The corners of the note are not rounded, there are no pen marks on the bill. The bill has no tape on it also bill has no tears. None of the corners are folded. However, the note has about three light vertical creases and one semi-strong vertical fold, some of the fibers are broken on the center fold. The note is not soiled in any way nor does the note have any foxing marks or stains. The boarders of the note are still white. The note is very clean with no smudging in the inks. The note is printed a bit off center. The note is printed high on the top and a bit to the left. The note is not well centered. Larger boarders on the bottom and the right hand margin. I was going to grade the note VF. The problem I have is the note has a couple of pinholes made by a staple in the upper left hand corner of the note. According to the ICG grading system, the only grades where holes are evident on the bill is "very good" and lower. But the note doesn't have any other characteristics of the lower grades of very good and below, so I thought the note should grade higher than just "very good".
I.E. if you had a perfect UNC note, except for a staple hole, would that drop the note all the way down to VG grade? Some clarification on this question would be appreciated.

Damage to a note needs to be disclosed no matter what the grade.

From your description of the note I would agree with you, the note is most likely VF. It is possible to have notes of higher grade have damage such as pinholes, tears or other. These are acceptable in grades where circulation is evident however as the grades get closer to unc these would certainly cause a bigger impact on grading and valuation. I would never expect to see a note grade gem unc with any sort of damage.

Using a third party grading system such as PMG you might lose 5 points for having a few pinholes but it would not automatically classify your note as a VG. The bulk of the impact may come on valuation as certain collectors will not consider bank notes with holes. Others will aim for considerable discount given that it would be fairly easy to find a similar banknote without any damage.