I am curious as to how the Slabber's track coins. When you have a coin slabbed and it comes back with a tracking number, is it tied into your personel information ? What happens with the tracking number when you buy a slabbed coin online ?
To my limited knowledge and talking to NGC about this same subject a slabbed coin does not have ownership to any one person. When you search the certified number files they just tell you what the coin is as stated on the coins label. No names. I guess you could join NGC and register your slab in your name???
I think you may be referring to two different functions. There is "Submission Tracking" where the submitter (only) can follow the grading process from "Received" to "Scheduled for Grading" to "Quality Control" to "Finalized/Imaged/Shipped". It is in this last stage where the submitter can actually see the posted grades. The submitter has to login to view this info, but cannot view the submissions of others. All you have to do is enter the submission # from the top right of the submission worksheet. Then, you also have "Cert Look-Up" where anyone can check the authenticity of a slab. As a rule, there are photos of the entire slab, both obverse and reverse, but no close-ups. These photos are the property of NGC, and they can't be copied. A cert look-up can be performed by anyone on the NGC Home Page, www.ngccoin.com , without having to login. Chris
Thanks Chris, Do I understand correctly that if I buy a NGC slabbed coin, I can view a verification on line using the slab number ?
But through the certification number NGC DOES have access to more information that is not available to the general public (in house use only) it tells them when it was submitted and by whom. If someone else has sent it in for reholdering they probably will also have information about that person tied to the slab as well. If it was previously graded and had been sent in for regrading it probably also references the old number and the information associated with that number.
It comes from trying to maintain the myth that grading standards have never changed and that a grade from 1987 is exactly the same as one from 1990, or 95, or 2000, or 2005 etc. Now long term collectors know this isn't true and that at various times the TPG's have been looser or stricter. But if you don't know when a given coin was slabbed, you don't know if it was during a strict or loose period so most people just accept whatever is on the label. This was one of the major friction points between me and PCGS when I was writing the book and identifying when various slabs were produced. They did not want me identifying time periods.
