Some listings I've seen of slabbed PCGS coins are listed as OGH. I assume this means "Old Green Holder". Am I correct and do these OGH's command any premium and why? Thanks.
IMHO, this is a marketing ploy to create a premium. There was a time when PCGS grading standards were a little stricter and thus a MS64 in a OGH might be reslabbed as a MS65 today. So, people would buy the OGH and resubmit them and turn around and make a profit. But, just like today...there is a range of quality in all slabbed coins...no MS64 is the same. By now, the majority of the OGH coins that could be upgraded have been. What is left is the low end stuff that won't (in most cases). So, the OGH stuff today is basically a marketing ploy.
As to the letters most use "Original Green Holders", but they are the older type. The supposition is that since they were graded years ago, the grades are more likely to be conservative and thus have a chance of an upgrade ( sometimes for big $$) if broken out and resubmitted. However, this practice has occurred for a long time, and the OGH of today seem to be the borderline ones and the chance of a regrade higher is diminished. If one examines hundreds of these, you can sometimes find candidates for regrading. However, the axiom of by the coin and not the holder, is an important one. Jim As I typed the "Big Tooth" answered
The same is true for the NGC "No Line Fatties" and the ANACS "Little White Slabs". Many of these were considered to be conservatively graded. Most of the ones that warranted resubmission for upgrade were cracked out long ago, and only the "good for the grade" or lower are still in these old slabs. I have quite a few from all three grading services. A few would probably get an upgrade if I wanted to crack them out and resubmit, but these slabs are getting harder and harder to come by so I think I'll just keep them the way they are. Chris
Yes it does mean old green holder. It applies to the green paper PCGS used when it started. There is no real premium for those older holders. its just PCGS graded a little stricter when it first started then now. So in theory if you resubmit the coin to PCGS to be regraded it has a better chance to come back MS64 instead of the MS63 you submitted. I would not recomend you pay more for the coin than you normally would at the listed grade. Unless you can look at the coin in person and see that it might get a higher grade. Pictures (unless they are at the same 10X the inspectors use) are not reliable for judging grade differences. Another thing to remember is the cost of getting the coin regraded. Depending on the difference in value it may cost more to buy that MS63 OGH and get it regraded to MS64 than you could have just bought the MS64 in the first place. Hope this helps and good collecting.
That's not really the case, although many people think it is. PCGS didn't even start to use the "green" holders until 1990. And they continued to use them until the end of 1998 - 13 years after they started slabbing coins.
Thanks for the info. I will pass it on from now on. I was told by one of the many people that was it, but now I know the truth.
Don't feel bad, it's just one of the many bits of bad information out there used to get people to pay more for something than it's really worth.
Sometimes I think OGH really stands for "I can't grade". lol That said, the only value I see in any old holder is that they speak to the relative stability of the coin's surfaces -- but even then it's a bit of a stretch unless there's strong documentation of the con's appearance when slabbed.
