This is for the person who collects grading services... Condor, maybe? http://cgi.ebay.com/2007-S-Proof-UT...7QQihZ010QQcategoryZ10768QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Utah Quarter, "East American Grading Company" http://cgi.ebay.com/2007-S-Utah-SIL...2QQihZ008QQcategoryZ10768QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Another Utah Quarter, "Colonial Coin Graders" (you may already be familiar with) As a side note not necessarily related to the above, there appear to be a remarkable number of PF-70 Utah quarters out there already. (My son is doing a report on Utah and as a railfan, the depiction of Promontory and the Golden Spike would be of interest even if I weren't into numismatics.) Who will be first with a PF-71? (I can guess...)
Oh god what pieces of junk. How I wish i had been wrong when I predicted that with the introduction of the generic shells everyone and his brother would be starting up his own grading service. Oh well two more fly-by-nights to add to the list.
Just curious, Condor... you have 132 companies in your sig as of 12/29/06-- how many did you start with?
Well it depends on when you consider the start was. When I started collecting there were no services so you could say I started at one. But if we use as the beginning my first published list of companies, that was back in 2000 and it contained 27 companies. I haven't recounted recently but I believe I'm now up to around 150.
Conder101,it sounds like you need to tell us which crowds are the self-slabbers,so that some members who bid on eBay can avoid them like the plague. Aidan.
Yet another one... http://cgi.ebay.com/1900-GOLD-LIBER...7QQihZ013QQcategoryZ39470QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem What is "SNGA"? Does the yellow ink blot at the bottom left come with the coin? And I may have noted this before: "World Coin Grading"... http://cgi.ebay.com/1900-GRADED-MS6...7QQihZ001QQcategoryZ39466QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem [This listing also passes my "number of fonts, colors and exclamation points" test...]
Later on in my journeys through that Internet Auction Community, I came across someone who'd put a coin in a slab type holder with just a printed legend of what it is. There was no grade or grading service listed. I don't think there was any particular motive involved here other than trying to preserve the coin better but I wonder if anyone will take it for a slabbed coin when it isn't-- and, to be fair, isn't described as such either.
You'll find a lot of those and ther is nothing wrong with that, the generic shells do a good job protecting the coin. Naturally I on't try to list those. I try to look for pieces with a company name/initials, an attempt at sealing the slab, usually with labels on both sides, preferably a hologram, and a serialnumber/barcode. I know all of those can be done up by Joe Sixpack at hom by his computer, but it is something more than just sticking the coin i the holder with a generic label. The problem is in coming up with a standard for what IS a grading service