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The ideal ${\mathrm{C}}_{60}$ carbon cage has Ih molecular point group symmetry. The highest symmetry-protected orbital degeneracy is five; spin degeneracy is counted separately.

The highest expected orbital degeneracy is five. Ideal buckminsterfullerene has Ih molecular point group symmetry. Its irreducible orbital representations include five-dimensional $H_g$ and $H_u$ representations; no single-valued orbital irrep has higher dimension.

This counts distinct spatial molecular orbitals. It does not multiply by electron spin, and it excludes accidental coincidences between unrelated irreps. In a real environment, symmetry lowering can split these degeneracies.^[ref]