Pokémon Card Rarity Symbols Explained

Pokémon rarity symbols tell you how hard a card was to pull from a pack. They’re easy to miss, since the symbol is only a few millimeters wide, and the list has grown a lot since the circle, diamond and star of 1999. This guide shows where to find the symbol, what every current symbol means, and what cards of each rarity actually sell for, using TCG Vault’s database of TCGplayer market prices.

Where is the rarity symbol on a Pokémon card?

On modern cards, look at the bottom left corner. Reading left to right, you’ll find the regulation mark (a letter in a box), the set code (such as PFL for Phantasmal Flames), the collector number (such as 125/094) and then the rarity symbol.

Older cards put it on the other side. The rarity symbol, set symbol and card number moved to the left with the Sun & Moon series in 2017. On cards printed before that, including the original 1999 Base Set, the symbol sits at the bottom right, right after the collector number.

Pokémon rarity symbols chart

Here’s every rarity symbol you’ll find on current English cards, with the median Near Mint TCGplayer market price of cards with that rarity in our database on September 18, 2026. The Scarlet & Violet column covers the 16 expansions from March 2023 to July 2025; the Mega Evolution column covers the five main sets from September 2025 to July 2026. Poké Ball and Master Ball pattern versions are left out.

Symbol	Rarity	Median price, Scarlet & Violet sets	Median price, Mega Evolution sets
● black circle	Common	$0.13	$0.09
◆ black diamond	Uncommon	$0.14	$0.10
★ one black star	Rare	$0.19	$0.18
★★ two black stars	Double Rare	$0.81	$0.68
★★ two silver stars	Ultra Rare	$2.24	$2.32
★ one gold star	Illustration Rare	$14.60	$2.92
★★ two gold stars	Special Illustration Rare	$29.74	$44.59
★★★ three gold stars	Hyper Rare	$7.98	Replaced
✦ gold four-pointed star, black outline	Mega Hyper Rare	Not used	$173.47
★ pink star	ACE SPEC Rare	$0.60	Not used
☆ hollow gold star	Shiny Rare	$4.63	$4.09
☆☆ two hollow gold stars	Shiny Ultra Rare	$2.23	Not used
★★ one black, one white star	Black White Rare	$592.58	Not used
★ black star with “PROMO”	Promo	Varies	Varies

Two rarities belong to single sets so far. The Black White Rare exists only in Black Bolt and White Flare, four cards in all, and the Mega Attack Rare, covered below, appears only in Ascended Heroes.

What do the stars mean on Pokémon cards?

The circle, diamond and single black star go back to the first English set, Base Set, released on January 9, 1999, and the Pokémon Company kept them unchanged when it redesigned cards for Scarlet & Violet in 2023. Everything above Rare is a variation on the star, and the color tells you what kind of card it is:

• Black stars mark the regular rarities: one for Rare, two for Double Rare, which is the rarity of regular Pokémon ex cards.
• Silver (white) stars mark Ultra Rares, the full-art Pokémon ex and Supporter cards. On a white background they can be hard to see.
• Gold stars mark the art-focused and top-end cards: Illustration Rare, Special Illustration Rare and Hyper Rare.
• Hollow stars mark shiny Pokémon, as in Paldean Fates (January 2024).
• A pink star marks ACE SPEC cards, special Trainer and Energy cards limited to one per deck, which returned in Temporal Forces in March 2024.

Illustration Rare vs Special Illustration Rare vs Hyper Rare

All three arrived with the Scarlet & Violet base set on March 31, 2023.

• Illustration Rare (one gold star): a full-art Pokémon that isn’t a Pokémon ex, with artwork that fills the whole card. In the Scarlet & Violet sets, the median one was worth $14.60, and some are worth far more: Paldea Evolved’s Magikarp Illustration Rare was at $378.48.
• Special Illustration Rare (two gold stars): full-card artwork for a Pokémon ex or a Supporter. These are usually the most valuable cards in a set. The median was $29.74 in Scarlet & Violet sets and $44.59 in Mega Evolution sets, and the most valuable one in these sets, Prismatic Evolutions’ Umbreon ex, was at $1,410.28.
• Hyper Rare (three gold stars): a gold-colored version of a card. Pokémon notes that these were previously known as secret rares. Despite the extra star, the median Hyper Rare ($7.98) sold for less than the median Illustration Rare.

That last point is a good reminder: the number of stars describes rarity, not value.

What is a Mega Hyper Rare?

The Mega Hyper Rare replaced the Hyper Rare when the Mega Evolution series began with the Mega Evolution set on September 26, 2025. Its symbol is a four-pointed gold star with a black outline.

Mega Hyper Rares carry the highest median price of any rarity in the Mega Evolution sets: $173.47 across the five main sets. The most valuable in our data was Phantasmal Flames’ Mega Charizard X ex at $254.44.

Ascended Heroes (January 2026) added the Mega Attack Rare, marked with one pastel pink and one pastel green star; its median price there was $7.26. Before that set, English Mega Attack Rares had only appeared as black star promos.

What does the black star promo symbol mean?

Promo cards come from products, events and special releases instead of booster packs. Most carry a black star with the word “PROMO” instead of a normal rarity symbol. Current promos are numbered within their own promo set, such as SVP 001 for Scarlet & Violet or MEP 001 for Mega Evolution, and there’s no set total after the number.

Promo value varies a lot, and small details matter. In our data, the Meganium MEP 001 promo was at $29.19, while the same card with a “Staff” stamp was at $116.89.

Secret rares: when the number is higher than the set total

A card numbered above the set’s printed total, such as 199/165, is what collectors call a secret rare. It isn’t an official rarity with its own symbol; it’s a way of numbering the cards that sit beyond the main set list.

151 is a good example. Its cards are printed out of 165, but the set has 207 cards, so everything from 166/165 up is a secret rare. That’s where its Illustration Rares, Ultra Rares, Special Illustration Rares and Hyper Rares live, including the Charizard ex at 199/165.

Rarity symbols on older Pokémon cards

If you’re sorting cards from before 2023, you’ll meet a few symbols and marks that current sets no longer use:

• Rare Holo: the same single star as a Rare, but with foil artwork. It was the rarity above Rare from 1999 until the end of the Sword & Shield series in January 2023.
• 1st Edition stamp: marks cards from the first print run of a set, used from Base Set through Neo Destiny. It isn’t a rarity symbol, but it changes a card’s value.
• Shadowless: the second English print of Base Set, recognizable by the missing drop shadow around the artwork box.
• Amazing Rare: a rainbow “A” symbol, introduced in Vivid Voltage (2020).
• Radiant Rare: despite its special name, the card itself shows a plain white star.

Does the rarity symbol tell you what a card is worth?

Only roughly. Rarity tells you roughly how often a card turns up in packs, but the price depends on which Pokémon is on the card, how the artwork is received and how many people want it. TCGplayer’s own guide puts it bluntly: you can’t tell how valuable a card is just by identifying its rarity.

Our data backs that up. In the five main Mega Evolution sets, 71% of cards were worth less than $1 and every Common, Uncommon and Rare was under a dollar. But Special Illustration Rares ranged from about $14 to nearly $700 in the same sets.

So use the symbol to sort your cards, then check the price of the exact card. You can look it up by name and number with the Pokémon card value checker, or scan a whole stack with the TCG Vault card scanner, which shows each card’s rarity and current market price. For the difference between the foil patterns you’ll find on each rarity, see our guide to reverse holo vs holo cards.