coin grading crash course

i am sure this has been asked alot, but my research turns up little. i am about to have alot of coins graded. what is my best route? i've been told that grading services have an amount to charge for 1 time grading fees, or a set amount you can pay for membership and they will grade all coins or x amount that you send in within the time period/membership you purchased..ie month or year for x dollars & you can submit x number of coins. which service treated you right and you would recommend? i only know of 2 or 3, so please tell me your experiences both good and bad. as well as your opinion on who's the best grading service & why. post links here to other threads that are on submitting for grading, as well. i cant research them, if i dont know of them to begin with. thanks

 

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My suggestion would be to send them to PCGS. I think PCGS graded coins tend to be more in demand (and bring higher prices) because of all the PCGS Registry "players". Another reason is a lot of people dislike the new NGC slabs where the white tabs obscure part of the coin and rim making photographing the coin after slabbing problematic.

If any of the coins are especially nice and/or beautiful, consider paying extra for the TrueView photography option that PCGS offers. Having the coin professionally photographed before it's slabbed is always a good idea. It not only makes it easier to sell when you have a great photograph, it also provides a great record of the coin looking it's best. If you have the coin professionally photographed after it's slabbed, the photographer has to shoot the coin through the plastic, which causes all kinds of issues.

 

Hi all-
I have quite a bit of coins I'd like to submit for grading...
I was considering joining PCGS for the year and giving it a shot. I was wondering what the chances are of getting some 70's back. I have never submitted my own coins for grading (always purchased them).

I have 2010 and 2011 silver complete proof sets with presidential dollars and several years of eagles, including the 2006 anniversary set.

So long question I know, But is the $300/year PCGS subscription worth it? Will I ultimately be disappointed when all of my original mint proofs come back with 69's OR is there a good chance they could make 70's?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

Unless you have a good eye for grading, sending a coin in in hopes for 70 is a bit of a gamble.

 

I do think I have a pretty good eye...
Even if they are direct from the mint, some of them still sealed in the mints original box?

 

To be a 70 coin, the coin has to be "perfect". Even sealed in the mint packaging, a coin may not have a good strike, or it might have a very small nick or two, etc. There are many variables.

 

I agree 100% with the above comments about grading and is it worth it.

I follow the sportscard market and many sellers can't even recover the money it cost to grade the card in the first place. In other words, many sellers would have been money ahead to have tossed the card in the garbage rather than spend $15.00 to get it graded only to find out they can't get $10.00 for it. Grading cards has it's place but if it's not rare or high end it simply is not worth it.

And what you may think is high end may be only average to someone else.

 

Ya want a coin graded? Buy it graded. Saves on a whole bunch o' jing..........

Make some other poor old devil pay the premium.

 

Since they are newer mined coins I'd only submit any where they would actually bring a large premium because of the higher grade , as stated before if you wanted MS-70 coins it would be better to buy preslabbed coins . IMHO There's really not that much difference between a 69 and 70 to pay the higher costs a 70 brings . But if you can tell the difference on a fairly consistent basis between the two I wouldn't take the gamble . I know I can't .

 

Aw heck. I like OGP (original government packaging). Unless you know for danged sure (like Rusty stated) that the dang thing's gonna grade a '70 leave it be. Costs too dang much to send these things in for grading. Like I stated above.....ya want it graded, buy it graded. Grading "moderns" is a joke......this from a 'modern' guy.

 

Hoarder,

I think this warrants clarification............

The membership fee that you pay entitles you to submit as many coins as you want during the membership period, and also for that membership, you will receive a voucher for 4 or 8 free gradings depending on the membership level you choose. However, you will be required to pay the standard tier charge for all coins submitted in excess of those submitted using the voucher. You do not receive free submissions for the entire year. You must use the voucher for the free gradings within one year.

Chris

 

Having a "good eye" is not good enough. If you can't tell what distinguishes a 69 from a 70, then you are just taking a chance that they will grade 70. Like Doug said, you have better odds in Las Vegas. (I prefer the craps tables!) Just because they are still in the OGP doesn't mean anything.

Chris

Chris

 

It's a gamble, but you can figure out if the odds are in your favor.

Make a spreadsheet with the coins you want to submit. Get the values of the PR70 and PR69 for each off ebay (minus the listing fees)and enter them, as well as the grading costs (including membership and shipping). Now you can figure out what percentage you need at PR70 to make a profit.

Since you're talking about 2010 & 2011 silver proof sets, the Kennedy will be the highest valued item. There is about a $20-30 spread between PR69 & PR70 for those, so the cost of grading is going to eat deeply in to that.

You'll need a high percentage of PR70. And if you think you're really good, just look at the populations of PR69 vs PR70 Kennedy's. That shows you how many folks thought they had a PR70 but didn't.

Don't let me discourage you. I've never submitted coins for grading. I think it's worth trying, even if just for the experience.

 

It's a gamble and the odds are against you for more 70's than 69s.

Save your $$s.

 

unless you are among the top 10% of graders in the United states, I'd say that your chances of determining a 69 from a 70 is virtually nil, if not impossible. This is a tough call for experts.

As Doug stated earlier, if you want to gamble, go to Vegas. The overwhelming majority of coins sent for grading to top tier TPGs by hobby newcomers should never have been sent in the first place. Almost without exception the grade that they will receive is unlikely to be one that would have enhanced the coin's value in the marketplace.

There is also a really good reason that MS-70 coins command really high prices, and that is because very very few exist. If you can't tell a 66 from a 70, you should save your money and keep the coins raw.

 

thanks 4 comments guys, i have several sets of silver statehood quarters id like graded. i like to think i know a 66 from a 70. if i never send one in how will i know if what i think is a hi grade is a indeed a hi grade?

 

Thanks Sodude and Mikedoodle.

The physical difference between 69s & 70s blow my mind. The cost difference is absurd too! I wouldn't be grading necessarily to sell, honestly I'd just really like to keep a collection of all 70s but the more that I look into the costs of actually grading myself the less important it is becoming to me. I actually have a microscope and have looked at my current slabbed 69s and 70s but it's hard to really tell with the plastic.

Is there value in having your entire personal collection graded? I don't know why I care so much, but I feel that having 70's on all of my newer (the past 10 years worth) would somehow make them more valuable to me. Will they be less likely to tone, or tarnish?

PCGS is $300/year for the top tier subscription program, and includes 8 coin submission vouchers. What is the cost to submit without the vouchers, and I assume they're going to take a percentage of the value of the graded coin?

Still this grading process seems extremely subjective, that if you somehow pay more $$$ you're more likely to receive all 70s. Recently I had a conversation with someone, who told me - the more coins you submit at once to PCGS the more 70s they're going to give you, rather than doing 2 coins here 1 coin there. Anyone else experience this? (not to mention the ebay auctions of 100x silver eagles ALL MS70s, how is that even possible, did they submit 500 coins to get 100??)

Really in the end is grading even worth it?

 

I would recommend that anyone thinking about getting coins graded go to the web site of the grading companies and do a lot of reading. It can get very expensive to send in the wrong coins, or even to send them in wrong, as in most cases you don't get any free passes if you do it wrong.
This is from a collector that has spent several thousand dollars in grading fees but has got some rather nice MS and PR 70 coins. But in reality some of my most expensive coins are in the lower grades but it is fun to buy a coin as a VF35 and get it graded as a AU53. That was one of my better scores.

I will add that if you have the eye to find the jewels that are out there the grading game can be fun.



Also in most cases lower value coins less than a couple of hunderd dollars are not good canidates for grading your better off just buying them already slabbed.

But when you see one like the one above for $110.00 jump on it.