A Pokémon card's rarity is printed directly on the card, as a small symbol next to the card number. A circle is Common, a diamond is Uncommon, and a star is Rare. Everything more elaborate than that is a variation on the star, and once you can read the symbol you can classify any modern card in about two seconds.
Rarity, though, is only one of four things that make a card scarce. The other three — print variant, era and condition — are frequently more important, and none of them is printed on the card as a symbol.
| Symbol | Rarity | Typical count in an English pack |
|---|---|---|
| Circle | Common | Four to five |
| Diamond | Uncommon | Three |
| Star | Rare | At least one guaranteed |
These three have been the backbone of the game since the beginning and they still are. If you inherit a shoebox of cards, sorting by symbol is the fastest first pass you can make.
With the Scarlet & Violet expansion, the English rarity scale was changed to correspond to the one used in Japan. The result is a ladder of star variants:
| Rarity | Symbol | What it usually is |
|---|---|---|
| Double Rare | Two stars | Pokémon ex |
| Ultra Rare | Two silver stars | Full Art Pokémon ex or Full Art Supporter |
| Illustration Rare | One gold star | Full-art scene cards showing Pokémon in their environment |
| Special Illustration Rare | Two gold stars | As above, with glitter foil, on chase Pokémon or Supporters |
| Hyper Rare | Three gold stars | Gold-bordered cards |
| Shiny Rare | One hollow gold star | Shiny Pokémon |
| Shiny Ultra Rare | Two hollow gold stars | Shiny Pokémon, full art |
| ACE SPEC Rare | Pink or magenta star | ACE SPEC Trainer cards |
Illustration Rares and Special Illustration Rares were both introduced with the Scarlet & Violet expansion, which released in English on 31 March 2023. Illustration Rares are usually holographic alternate-art reprints of Commons, Uncommons and Rares from the same set. Special Illustration Rares add a further layer of glitter foil and are applied to chase cards — Pokémon ex, V, VSTAR, VMAX — or to Supporters.
One era change worth knowing: from the Scarlet & Violet expansion forward, every Rare that appears in a booster pack is a holofoil Rare. The plain non-holo Rare, which used to be the ordinary case, no longer exists in packs.
A Holofoil Rare has a foil pattern on the card's artwork. A reverse holofoil has foil on the card's background but not on the illustration itself — and it can be a card of any rarity, including a Common.
Reverse holos entered English sets with Legendary Collection, released 24 May 2002, and each booster pack has been guaranteed one since. This is why a Common with a shiny background is not a rare card. It is a Common with a different finish.
Foil patterns themselves changed over time: Base Set, Jungle and Fossil used a Starlight Holofoil pattern; Base Set 2 through Call of Legends used Cosmos Holofoil. Being able to spot the difference is one of the more useful vintage skills, and it interacts with the print variants below.
Two copies of the identical card, same number, same rarity symbol, can be very different objects.
Base Set — released 9 January 1999, 102 cards — was printed in three English variants in this order: 1st Edition, then Shadowless, then Unlimited. 1st Edition cards carry an "Edition 1" symbol, generally opposite the expansion symbol, marking the first print run; the same symbol appears on 1st Edition packs and boxes. Shadowless was the second English print, distinguished by the absence of the drop shadow around the illustration window and by thinner HP values and attack text. Unlimited reintroduced the drop shadow with bolder text.
For Trainers and Energy, which have no illustration window, the tell is the copyright line: Shadowless reads "© 1995, 96, 98, 99 Nintendo", while Unlimited drops the 99. Shadowless was exclusive to the English release — there is no non-English equivalent.
1st Edition runs were produced for every English set except Base Set 2, up to and including Neo Destiny. Jungle (16 June 1999, 64 cards) and Fossil (10 October 1999, 62 cards) both had them. Base Set 2 (24 February 2000, 130 cards) did not.
Some sets contain a distinct subset with its own numbering, and those cards sit outside the ordinary rarity ladder.
The clearest example is the Shiny Vault in Shining Fates, released 19 February 2021. It is a 122-card subset numbered SV001/SV122 through SV122/SV122. Per Bulbapedia, a Shiny Vault card "can possibly be in a booster, replacing the Reverse Holofoil card when it is." That is why Shining Fates totals 195 cards — 72 in the main set, one secret, and the 122 Shiny Vault cards. Browse them in our Shiny Vault section.
A correction worth making, because a lot of retail blogs get it wrong: Paldean Fates does not have a Shiny Vault. Its shiny cards are numbered as ordinary secret cards above the 91-card main set, running up to 245. There is no SV prefix. If you are shopping Paldean Fates, sort by card number, not by an SV code that does not exist.
The single largest variable, and the one with no symbol. A Special Illustration Rare with a soft corner and a Special Illustration Rare that is clean are the same rarity and very different cards. Our condition guide covers what to look for.
The Scarlet & Violet English scale was aligned to the Japanese one, and the Japanese cognates — RR, SR, AR, SAR, UR — map roughly onto Double Rare, Ultra Rare, Illustration Rare, Special Illustration Rare and Hyper Rare. Roughly is the operative word: the mapping is not a full overlap, and the Sword & Shield era equivalents carried different official names again.
If you collect across both, read the Japanese versus English comparison before assuming a code translates cleanly, and see what we hold in Japanese Pokémon cards.
That order will classify almost anything. Browse singles or vintage Pokémon cards and try reading a few symbols against the tables above.
They are the three base rarity symbols: circle for Common, diamond for Uncommon, star for Rare. Most English packs contain four to five Commons, three Uncommons and at least one guaranteed Rare.
A holofoil Rare has foil on the artwork. A reverse holofoil has foil on the background but not the artwork, and can be any rarity including a Common. Every pack has included one reverse holo since Legendary Collection in May 2002.
They are separate rarities, marked by two gold stars and one gold star respectively. Special Illustration Rares add glitter foil and are applied to chase cards such as Pokémon ex, V, VSTAR and VMAX, or to Supporters.
A 1st Edition card carries an "Edition 1" symbol, generally opposite the expansion symbol. Shadowless cards have no drop shadow around the illustration window and use thinner HP and attack text. On Trainers and Energy, Shadowless reads "© 1995, 96, 98, 99 Nintendo" while Unlimited omits the 99.
No. That is Shining Fates, which has a 122-card Shiny Vault numbered SV001/SV122 to SV122/SV122. Paldean Fates numbers its shiny cards as ordinary secret cards above its 91-card main set, with no SV prefix.