We investigated the lower threshold for motion (LTM) of gratings as a function of position in the visual field, spatial frequency and contrast and we compared motion thresholds for sine wave and square wave luminance profiles. For contrasts below 0.05 the lower threshold for motion was raised; the increase in threshold being dependent upon spatial frequency. At contrast levels above 0.05, LTM was found to be a constant velocity at any given spatial location but increased with eccentricity of view. Raised thresholds for motion at eccentric locations could be compensated by increasing the size of eccentric gratings in proportion to M-1, where M is the cortical magnification factor, a procedure which standardises the cortical representation at differing eccentricities. Thus LTM could be expressed as a constant cortical velocity for grating contrasts above 0.05 at all stimulus locations investigated. We interpret our data as support for a ratio model of velocity coding.