A Coin Detective's Guide to PCGS.com: Using PCGS.com to Find the Coins Missing from Your Collection

Banner advertisements (far right), Shop Bar (top) and Shop buttons (right of description) match the on-page content in the PCGS.com Price Guide.

You probably already know that PCGS.com is a great source of research, tools, and valuable information for collectors of rare coins. The info available includes our price guides, population reports, auction prices realized, the Set Registry, and many informative articles and other resources.

What you may not know is that PCGS.com can also be a great tool for filling the holes in your coin collection. Over the years, we’ve added a number of ways to put great coins for sale in front of visitors who may be interested in them. While PCGS isn’t directly involved in any coin transactions, our website features a number of ways to search coin inventory available on the web and from major dealers. It can also be a resource to help you find a dealer or a group of dealers that can point you to your next treasure.

Throughout the site, we run banners from popular coin dealers. Many areas of the site focused on a particular coin type will attract banner advertising from dealers that specialize in that type of coin, so as you are researching your favorites, be sure to occasionally take a peak at the ads – they might put you in touch with an expert in your area of interest.

The PCGS Price Guide offers a number of ways to shop for a coin. In addition to the banner ads mentioned above, many pages in the price guide feature eBay listings to the right of the prices that match the type of coins. Along the top of the page, we have the "shop bar" – this is a list of links to searches for the type of coin on the page, from big-name dealers, eBay, and our sister company Collectors Corner.

Another feature available on the price guide, as well as the PCGS Population Report, is the Shop link. Next to each item listing in the pop report and price guide, there is a small link labeled "shop." Clicking this link will bring up a combination of inventory from major dealers and eBay available now of that exact coin type, as well as related or similar coins if none of that particular rarity are currently available.

Search results displayed on PCGS.com/dealers.

Another great way to find coins for sale is via your Set Registry sets. If you go into the My Collection area of My Set Registry for one of your sets, you’ll see links to Collectors Corner and eBay next to each set item, allowing you to examine exact matches that will improve your set. We do our best to show you correct matches, but always double check that the coin you find via this method does in fact fit the Set Registry item.

If you still haven’t found that elusive coin, a great way to it is to work with a PCGS Authorized Dealer. These dealers are experts in their areas of expertise and are exposed to a great many coins. Even if they don’t have what you’re looking for in stock, they can often locate it.

There are two great ways to find a dealer on PCGS.com. The first is to use the PCGS Authorized Dealer listings to find a dealer. You can search by specialty, or by location if you’d like to work with a local dealer face-to-face.

Another great way to find a dealer is to peruse the PCGS Auction Prices listings. I suggest browsing the type of coins you are seeking, where you can see which dealers have recently sold coins in that select category. Most of the listings feature a link back to the auctioneer’s site, and you can leap from there to their current auctions and see what they have to offer.

As you can see there are many ways PCGS can help you find your next coin. Happy hunting!