PCGS The Standart for the Rare Coin Industry

John Albanese, founder of the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation certification service, announced in the late 1980s that he would not encapsulate modern Proof coins, for there were too many abuses with telemarketers selling Proof-68 and other high graded common coins for uncommon prices, and he was not going to be a party to such deception. In one instance, an uninformed investor paid $200 for a Proof-68 1979-S Jefferson nickel, thinking that he had bought the bargain of the decade, not knowing that there are hundreds of thousands of other Proof 1979-S Jefferson nickels which are just as nice.

Do you remember my illustration of a rare 1785 Vermont copper coin, variety Ryder-5, in Good-4 grade? Here is a coin for the connoisseur. A Proof-68 1979-S Jefferson nickel is a coin for the connoisseur too, but it is so common that a connoisseur wouldn't give it more than a moment's attention, and, of course, he wouldn't be the slightest bit interested in paying anywhere close to $200 for it. In fact, one one-hundredth of that amount, or $2, would probably be about right!

In the same vein as the worn Vermont copper coin, let me mention that I own a very worn and somewhat decrepit-appearing 1787-dated Washington and Columbia medal made of copper and used as a souvenir when two ships named Washington and Columbia set sail from Boston and sought to explore the Pacific Northwest, trading medals like this to the native Indians. My specimen was once the property of well-known connoisseur T. Harrison Garrett, of Baltimore, Maryland, who acquired it in the 19th century. When the Garrett Collection was sold, John Weston Adams, certainly a person of numismatic taste and discrimination if there ever was one, was the successful bidder. When Adams secured a somewhat finer piece he sold the Garrett example to me. Probably someone who would pay $21,000 for an MS-68 1936 Cincinnati half dollar or $200 for a Proof-68 1979-S Jefferson nickel would not want the 1787 Washington and Columbia medal free, let alone for the several thousand dollars it might cost today.

Why did I want such a medal? Because, at the suggestion of John J. Ford, Jr., I spent a weekend reading a reprint of the log kept on the voyage in question, and could envision that owning one of these 1787-dated medals would truly be a link to what I was learning about.

This medal came to mind when Anne Bentley, keeper of the medals and coins in the collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society, visited our offices to have Cathy Dumont, our staff photographer, take pictures of the three specimens of the Washington and Columbia medal owned by the Society. These three pieces, none of which would be called "choice" or "gem" by investors or anyone else, were truly exciting for me to contemplate and are among the foremost numismatic treasures of that institution.

The higher the grade of a 1936 Cincinnati half dollar, or an 1979-S Proof Jefferson nickel, or a 1785 Ryder-5 Vermont copper, or a 1787 Washington and Columbia medal, the better, but don't believe that grading is everything.