I've never submitted a coin to a TPG and am skeptical about going through an authorized dealer. If I join NGC or PCGS, am I able to submit a single coin at a time or is there always a 4 or 5 coin minimum?
The 5-minimum is for the lower rate submissions. You can submit one coin at a time but the tier charge is more. Chris
And probably a thousand times I have read reports where PCGS bagged a coin on the first submission and then slabbed it the next time it was submitted. Oddly enough, never once have I ever read a report where NGC did the same thing. Nonetheless I'll stand by my first comment.
NGC had it right both times. One PCGS returned as "questionable authenticity" on an Albanian 100 Franga. The other was a "no decision" on another Albanian coin, a 20 Franga prova. No question in my mind they were both real when I sent them in, PCGS apparently has not handled very many of them. In the case of the prova, not even enough experience to have an opinion apparently. For world coins, you're really better off going with NGC. They have more experience, and their grading tends to be far more consistent. Probably not the case with NGC and US coins however, I've seen a few coins in NGC holders marked as AU50 or AU53 that I wouldn't have graded VF35.
There are no shortages of stories, that's for sure. But really, who is shocked that opinions differ or change? I don't want to be the only collector on Doug's list who has turned around an NGC BB and gotten a clean graded. So I'll not tell that story. But I have a good one to share about an S-VDB. I'll have to turn that one into a separate post. Lance.
These threads pop up periodically and they are always interesting. PCGS certainly brings higher money for a MS65 Buffalo of a particular date than NGC does. Same is true for the other series I collect. That does not mean that PCGS is necessarily better although for reasons probably similar to Lance and Todd, I rarely buy NGC any more. I did buy a nice Seated Dime from Mark Feld last month that was in an NGC holder with a CAC football on it. Will probably try to cross it at some point because I have a bit of OCD myself when it comes to slabs. For what it is worth, I think that NGC is as tight on grading today as PCGS for the series I follow, but a grading disparitiy over time leads to a price disparity. Also think that PCGS is very tough on color in Buffalos, likely because they got burned enough by the man from Chicago. Finally, I agree with the comment that the NGC boxes are nicer and it is annoying that NGC slabs don't fit in PCGS boxes.
wow ok I guess Ill be the minority here because I prefer NGC ... (although I do have a weakness for the old pcgs holders)
My sentiments exactly. I especially like the old green tag PCGS holders, the grading was so conservative back then there isn't any need for a CAC sticker on one. I have some nice coins in PCGS holders, and generally I don't cross-over from one grading service to the other. That's a waste of money in my opinion. But the NGC holders are just plain superior, especially the edge view holders. The new PCGS edge-view holders somehow lack a real quality look to them, I think because the mounting tabs are identicle in width to the spaces between tabs. On an NGC edge-view, of course there are 4 tabs instead of 3, but they are smaller and have more of a museum archival look to them. The PCGS edge view look like something IKEA outsourced to China in my opinion. And then there is the issue of toning in holders. There were a number of proof eagle gold coins slabbed by PCGS a few years ago that turned red in the holders within 24 months. Was almost as if they were injecting sulfer dioxide into the slabs or something. I have no idea how coins could experience that kind of accelerated toning in a few short years. I had a few gold coins of my own that I had slabbed about the same time, both from Peru, that also turned red within 18 months. Probably the most amazing thing about it, not a word in the press, at least none that I saw.
Since I am after varieties and errors, I gotta go to ANACS. Too many different errors are not in the knowledge base over at those two, and the last thing I want is to have to re-submit to ANACS. I just go there first. gary
Hope ya do as I'd like to read it; I'm assuming PCGS graded it ? You see contrary to most I hold no bias, positive or negative, towards either company. Coins have always toned in holders, and sometimes very quickly. For some reason people seem to have the mistaken idea that it takes decades for a coin to tone - it doesn't. Under the right conditions coins can tone in weeks or even less.
Got it. For some reason I was thinking they were cleaned US coins, not world coins. So yeah - sounds like PCGS. The common story is usually around US coins - sent to one and it came back body bagged and sent to the other and it graded.
I hope I don't start a flame war but I like NGC better! The main reason is from a couple of articles I read talking about how relatively simple it is to crack and substitute the PCGS plastic holders; that may or may not be accurate but I bought a PCGS 2006 reverse proof ASE graded 70 and it came with awful brownish stains on obverse and reverse! The obverse stain covers about 80% of the sun! So far I've been unable to get a determination from PCGS if it's legitimate. I'd think something like a stain would be mentioned on the label if the coin graded a "Perfect" 70. Most of the slabbed coins I own are NGC partly because of that one (non-returnable) purchase and partly because that's just what I wanted happened to be in an NGC slab. Now, a bit off-topic and possibly worthy of a thread of its own: I've got a few hundred or so ASE's I got from various sources but all purchased in the current year (mostly) and I'd like to have some of them slabbed. My quandary is I don't want anything less than a MS69! I've got a bunch of sealed coins I bought from Littleton and I did notice they were mostly lower quality by virtue of not seeing parallel stripes on Liberty's gown or on the flag so I know, while they are uncirculated, they wouldn't grade very high; past that, what are some of the indicators graders look for on ASE's that would denote a 69 or 70? I've looked at the two grades side-by-side under 30X magnification and have yet to find a difference between the two! If someone could please post or send me an address so I can educate myself I'd be forever grateful.
