PCGS The Standart for the Rare Coin Industry

Just One of Several Factors

Of course not everyone agrees with my contention that grading is not precise and that a numerical grade is only one of several determinants of market value. Many feel that trading sight-unseen is the key to achieving a truly active stock-exchange-like coin market, and they don't want to listen to anyone who doesn't agree. However, as of this writing, I have never met even one collector who has told me that he will buy a coin sight-unseen and, without question or complaint, will keep it if he doesn't like it. I and numerous other professionals believe that collectors are the foundation of the hobby, and how they feel is of paramount importance to the health and well-being of numismatics.

The first certification company was the Professional Coin Grading Service, launched in 1986 by David Hall, one of the most brilliant thinkers in numismatics, who had been prominent as a rare coin dealer for many years. His basic premise was that a coin, if encased in a sealed transparent holder and marked with a grade that represented the combined opinion of several experts, would be more likely to actually be in that grade than a coin graded by just one person, and that once encapsulated, the grade of the coin would remain fixed in time. For the investor, a sealed slab offered a security not possible with coins stored loosely in envelopes or ordinary plastic holders, as the latter could be easily switched. PCGS was a success from the very start, and within two years it announced that over one million coins had been certified. By 1990 the enterprise employed about 80 people. Today, it stands as the most successful of the various services.

Today, the three top grading services are these: Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS), Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC), ANACS, International Numismatic Service (INS), Photo-Certified Coin Institute. Staffing certain of these organizations are some of the most experienced, most qualified coin graders in numismatics. In June 1993, in the company of Dwight Manley, I went on a behind-the-scenes tour of PCGS in Newport Beach, California, and was very impressed with the employees and the methods used.

These certification services sonically seal coins in plastic encasements called slabs. The slabs have a market all their own. Bid and ask prices for certain slabbed coins are quoted continuously on electronic exchanges and are printed weekly in the Certified Coin Dealer Newsletter.