Baby Boomer Pocket Change

Why Bother to Get Your Coins Certified?

In coin collecting, coin grading is the process of determining the grade or condition of a coin, one of the key factors in its value as a collector’s item…

As of 2008, there are three prevalent coin grading services: PCGS, NGC, and ANACS. There are subtle variations in the grades assigned by each of these major services, and prospective buyers are encouraged to seek professional or expert advice before making any important rare coin purchases.

Wikipedia

Certifying the coin you brought will  provide increased security that it is in fact the real deal. If for example, it is supposed to be a rare old coin how do you know it has not been tampered with? In addition could the coin you brought on Ebay be a phony? How do you know that the coin you brought will have market value?

What I am finding out is that certification is a good idea if you want to eventually sell the coin. Yes, you will pay to have a certification service do the grading but you will have expert graders look at it.

Now, some of you are saying “I heard that each certification service may grade differently?

Well, I heard the same thing. It appears that some services are more generous than others in their grading of your coin. Each one uses some kind of system.

Check out what Wikepedia had to say:

n the May 26 2003 edition of Coin World, the hobby newspaper had announced they had contracted investigators to conduct a year-long, comparative study of PCGS, ACCGS.org, NGC along with several other grading services, each know as a TPG or Third Party Grader. In their investigation, Coin World sent several of the same coins were sent to each grading service over the course of a year, each coin being graded by all Third Party Graders sent to. The findings were; “In no case did the grading services agree on the grade of any given coin, and in some cases the difference in grading was as much as seven points off”. By way of example, a finding published by Coin World involved one case where ACCGS had graded a coin as “cleaned”, which lowers the coin value, Additionally the coin had been graded several grades lower than PCGS while PCGS had not noted the same coin was “in fact, cleaned”. It is standard in U.S. numismatics to grade coins on a point-scale from 1 (poor) to 70 (perfect)and to note if a coin has been cleaned or poorly mishandled, or in some cases, to reject it for encapsulation.

In September 2004, members of the American Numismatic Association (ANA) reported seeing counterfeit NGC PCGS holders (also known as “slabs”) at the Long Beach Coin Show. Members of the Beverly Hills Coin Club,(BHCC) an affiliate club-member of the ANA, had reported counterfeit coin slabs as early as December 3, 1998. As a direct result, BHCC partnered with ACCGS, manned by unpaid club volunteers, as a pre-certification service for coins and to “guarantee the authenticity of slabs or Third Party Grader holders”. More counterfeit PCGS and NGC holders were reported on eBay in 2005 and later years, but NCG did not address the problem until 2008, after high-quality counterfeit holders had been seen and purchased on eBay. Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) published the following acknowledgment on January 7, 2008:

“NGC has identified and confirmed that (counterfeit replicas) of its holder has been produced…….The holder has been seen housing counterfeit dollar or foreign crown size coins. While the enclosed coins are also counterfeit, the label information matches the coin type enclosed. The label information is copied from actual NGC certification labels, and the certification information therefore will match the NGC database. Most frequently, Trade Dollars and Bust Dollars are found, although Flowing Hair Dollars and foreign coins have also been seen. A range of grades is also represented.”

NGC and PCGS counterfeit holders have been reported in eBay forums and more may be reported by other firms and individuals. The PCGS website notes that they “anticipate that authentic coins will eventually be placed into counterfeit holders”. Third party graders are taking measures to resist counterfeiting, however, counterfeit holders may multiply and improve over time. Numismatic Guaranty Corporation and PCGS offer no reimbursement liability for the prices paid for coins in their counterfeit holders. Both firms have online links to verify the holder numbers. However, many buyers may not be computer users or may be unaware of such links. Caution is advised when purchasing coins in PCGS and Numismatic Guaranty Corporation holders as the seller can disclaim liability due to the “third party” nature of the counterfeit holder. Additionally, it may be too late to request refunds from eBay sellers before holders can be verified as counterfeits. Many coins are posted on eBay and through other venues “as is” and therefore with no return privileges.

I came across some information online by Reid Goldsborough and was impressed with the summary provided for each grading service along with the prices. So, take a few minutes to visit the page and read it.

Some of the services require that you are a member of a group or coin club and some do not. Some have a good reputation with coin experts and some are not held in high esteem.

Finally, what ever you decide to do keep your coins secure. Be very wary of keeping them in your home unless YOU KNOW they are secure certified or uncertified.

Tags: Certification, coin certification