NGC to photograph all certified coins to help combat countefeit slabs...

Good point, my feline forum friend.

 

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last person who called himt hat disappeared lets ee what happens next :whistle:

 

How fascinating. I've been told for years that returning to authentication certificates is "old fashion" "going backwards" and "impractical." If there is a reason why something that amounts to an authentication certificate works as an image in a data base but not as as hard copy in the hands of 7070 collector's I'd like to know what that reason is. There must be something that makes it "impractical" for album collectors to prove their coins are authentic.

 

I suggested this here a couple of years ago as a way to combat counterfeit slabs.

 

What was the reaction?

I believe NGC already issues certificates for large medals, Mutiple Thalers or whatever is too big to get in a holder. Sounds like they already have the equipment and capacity to do it if they wanted to.

 

As GD said, you can join the NGC collectors Society for free. If you want to submit you have to join at one of the higher paid levels.

I am a member of the society and I post on the NGC forum. When this came up over there an NGC rep came onto the thread and stated that the photos would be available through the certification verification page and that this was now going to be a free access. In the past certification verification has only been for the paid member level.

Say I'm a counterfeiter. I take a picture of the fake coins and create a photocertificate or whatever the hardcopy version of the NGC photo is. Now when I sell the coin you look at the hardcopy photocertificate and it matches so you buy it. You now have a fake coin and a fake certificate. By keeping the digital image on their site a counterfeiter would have to hack the site and insert their image of the fake into NGC's website. More likely they would have the images on a spoof site and show you that site when they try and sell you the coin. So it would be important for YOU to goto or enter the NGC site yourself to make sure you aren't being redirected to the spoof site.

There aren't too many coins now that will not fit in one of the oversized multi-coin holders. (I think the limits are 108 mm diameter and 6 mm thick.) Sure there are medals that won't fit but there are very few medals that NGC will certify. The only certificates I have ever seen from NGC are the Eliasberg Foreign gold coin certificates.

 

I was thinking of an actual authentication certificate from the photos with modern security devices in them. They would have already done a lot of the work authenticating the coin and imaging it. The option to get a certificate instead of a slab would just be another product line.

 

Yes! I am well aware of it - especially since I am a free member

 

I think it's a great idea for NGC to do this. I hope they will also photo-archive NCS items as well. We have seen fakes in NCS slabs out of SE Asia and China off and on for a while.

 

They are, but they aren't. The ones who most need them are the ones least likely to know that they can access them and vice versa.

 

What reasons didn't they work then?...Mike (who was 3 at the time)

 

Because they went with the coin. There was no internet to speak of.

 

But it's the same thing Doug. I don't see much difference if someone is comparing a digital image in a data base with a coin in a slab or comparing the the photo on a cert with a coin. Except that the people at NGC would actually look at the coin and make the comparison. People, apparently didn't do that with their certs, or so we are told, and got switched coins. If this really happen on a large scale I don't know why it would happen to collectors. If it happened to people who were strictly speculators on a hot ride that didn't know better---"OOOOh well."

You know what's going to happen if they all start data bases? The rumors will be flying that they are all connected, giving each other access to the others images and then scanning all coins for resubmissions, and assigning the same grade in a "vast liberal and/or conservative conspiracy" to be consistent.

WETSU!

 

So why wouldn't high resolution photograhs solve that shortcoming?

Color me optimistic, but my expectation is the photographs will be high enough quality and resolutoin to make website authentication possible on most coins (perhaps some ultra-high-grade moderns notwithstanding).

But as with all good ideas -- the key is execution. I suspect this will be no different....Mike

 

I agree, execution is the key.

But if even I, who have very little experience in photography, can get a high-res image of my subjects with the "George-proof" setting on my four year old Digital Rebel, than certainly it's reasonable to expect much better results with superior equipment (easily had, and far less expensive than it used to be) and someone more professionally oriented toward photography.

At least, I hope it's reasonable to expect this!

There also needs to be some security around the NGC database. I also hope that all similar URLs have already been locked up to prevent "lookalike" sites from having fake photos of the fake coins in the fake slabs available to the uninformed (or is that actual photos of the fake coins in the fake slabs...?!?)