World Series of Grading Winners Announced!

Mike Sherman and the winner of the Pro division, Jim Halperin.

The Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) announced the winners of the PCGS World Series of Grading. The World Series of Grading finals were held at the American Numismatic Association annual convention in Pittsburgh on August 18 to 21. The winner of the professional division was Jim Halperin, founder and Co-Chairman of Heritage capital Corporation of Dallas, Texas. The winner of the collector division was Trade dollar and Liberty Seated dollar specialist, Bruce Morelan. Both first place winners received a $5,000 first prize and both winners are donating their first prize money to the ANA's Young Numismatist program.

Jim Halperin scored 89.5 out of a possible 100 total points to win the pro division, and Bruce Morelan scored 71 out of 100 possible points to win the collector division. The final "test" featured 40 coins and each finalist had one hour to grade the 40 coins. There were 22 finalist in the event, each of whom had qualified for the finals by scoring exceptionally well in qualifying rounds held earlier in the year.

PCGS President David Hall was impressed with the winner's scores stating, "We purposely made the final test very difficult. The coins included very rare and esoteric early issues, extremely difficult counterfeits, and exceptionally high grade coins. Our goal was to really separate the men from the boys with this final event, and I didn't think that anybody would break the 80 point barrier. I think if I would have taken the test I would have been lucky to score 70. I'm am amazed at the scores of Jim Halperin, Don Bonser, and Jeff Garrett. Halperin is clearly the main man when it comes to rare coin grading."

Professional Division Top Scorers

1st place - Jim Halperin 89.5 (out of a possible 100)
2nd place - Don Bonser 84.5
3rd place - Jeff Garrett 83.5
4th place - Thad Olson 79
5th place - Brian Hendleson 74.5

Collector Division Top Scorers

1st place - Bruce Morelan 71
2nd place - Douglas Bible 67
3rd place - Seth Chandler 65
4th place - Craig Eberhart 63.5
5th place - J. C. Wang 60

Young Numismatist Winners

PCGS also held a Young Numismatists World Series of Grading at the ANA convention. The YN test also featured 40 coins, though the were not quite as difficult to grade as the pro and collector division coins. The co-winners of the 15 to 18 year old division were 15 year old Keith Moon of Orlando, Florida, and 15 year old Eric Hogan of Vero Beach Florida. Both had scores of 54.5 out of a possible 100. The winner of the 14 and under division was 12 year old William Robins of Chappaqua, New York, who top all YNs in both age groups with a score of 57.5 The first place prize for each of the Young Numismatist divisions was $2,500.

Mike Sherman and the co-winners of the 15 to 18 year old division, Keith Moon and Eric Hogan.

Mike Sherman and the winner of the 14 year old and under division, William Robins.

Here are the coins that were used in the Professional and Collector divisions of finals of the PCGS World Series of Rare Coin Grading, along with the grades of Professional division winner, Jim Halperin, and runner-up, Don Bonser, and the Collector division winner, Bruce Morelan.

PCGS will conduct next year's World Series of Grading with the same format. The first qualifying round will be held at the Florida United Numismatists coin show the second week of January.