What is the most affordable & reputable grading service? I really don't want to pay $20 to get a $100 coin graded. What are my best options?
Not much you can do there. Keep in mind that the cheaper the price, generally, the less you will get for the coin if you want to resell it. What is the coin you are talking about?
It,s true if you go with a 2nd teir grading company you will get a lower rate of return when you Go to sale a top teir company like PCGS is a good choice!
Well, It's actually a $200+ coin. 1884 Carson City Morgan. Worth getting graded? Any idea what this will come in at?
Yes!! it look,s really good to me would probably end up in the 63-64 range though it looks A little scratched up on the obverse not sure how much of a deduction there would be Probably need a loop to get a better idea on exact grade!
Looks MS but hard to see many details from the photos. Can you take it out of the 2X2 and retake the photos? Larger photos would help.
I would suggest you consider you collecting Goals and grades which will compose you collection . For me, a coins value at the time of purchase would be at least $350.00 before I would incur the expense's of authentication services. That does not mean to say I don't have $100 coins in holders, but that's the way I purchased them. My Medal & Token collections AU on up , I encapsulate regardless of whether or not it's a $100 piece or a $1000.00 piece.
I'm thinking 63 at best. Is that a fingerprint on her face? Submitting just one coin for grading will be more expensive at NGC. The Economy tier ($17) has a 5-coin minimum, so you would have to use the EarlyBird tier ($30). Shipping & Insurance from NGC to you is $19.70 for 1-3 coins with a total value of $1000 or less, and $28.35 for 4-6 coins with a total value of $1001-$5000. Chris
I agree. Looks like a fingerprint on the obverse. No matter whether you decide to slab it or not, you need to get that fingerprint off. A nice acetone bath and distilled water rinse should do the job.
Acetone will only remove fresh fingerprints. Fresh can be defined as only a couple of days old. After that fingerprints are there to stay, unless you use an acid dip that will remove the top layer of the metal itself. And no, I would not have that coin graded.
A lot of people don't like to hear this, but the vast majority of US coins are worth more in PCGS holders than NGC's and ANACS is a distant 3rd. Best bet? Get it in a PCGS slab. Only reason to send it to NGC is if it's in a GSA holder, NGC will grade them when still encapsulated in the original GSA slab.
I prefer NGC, but your statement doesn't bother me as much as you might think. What I do choose to take issue with is your assertion that "....the vast majority of US coins are worth more in PCGS holders....". Unless you are a specialist in every denomination and type and you have the complete documentation to prove it, you can't realistically make this claim. Nonetheless, if people want to pay more for a particular coin in a PCGS slab compared to a similar one that is equally and properly graded in an NGC slab, it's their money and they can do what they want with it. I'd rather pay less and be able to buy more coins. This is only an assumption, but isn't part of the differences in values due to the fact that PCGS only allows PCGS slabs in their Registry? What do you think would happen if PCGS also allowed NGC slabs in their Registry the way NGC allows PCGS slabs in their Registry? I prefer NGC because I believe that their customer service is better, and their certification fees are lower. Also, if NGC slabs a problem coin, they will at least identify the problem on the insert. PCGS prefers to "hide" it in their coding. Why is that? Are they ashamed to admit that a problem coin is in one of their slabs? Of course, all of this is just my opinion and wonderment. Chris
Possibly considering that years ago they publicly stated that they would NEVER put problem coins in a PCGS slab. Junp foward about ten years from that statement and boom they start putting problem coins in PCGS slabs. Apparently NEVER is not a very long time at all. It would be if they actually took pictures of the COIN in the slab. But no they take mediocre pictures of the entire slab and it is impossible to get a really good look at the coin. So if you have a slab you aren't sure of you can go look at the picture, but you still can't tell if it is the same coin. Makes the NGC pictures just this side of useless. Don't get me wrong, it is a great idea, it's just that they haven't been able to execute it properly yet.
