Got this back today. Looks like yet another holder change. Seem slightly thicker and more heavy duty. Bye bye dupont hologram. QR code brings up the coin info on pcgs's website.
There new holder's version has a chip imbedded in to holder under barcode . Coin World article said also claimed it was counterfeit proof?? But is anything counterfeit proof today.
They started releasing videos on Facebook and Youtube about 3 weeks ago. It now has "DNA!" in the plastic, which cannot be replicated. http://www.pcgs.com/security
It's not DNA. It's some sort of fluorescing plastic additive. I promise you it is NOT a biological material like DNA -- which would degrade over time, and from light exposure, but would also not be suitable to maintain inertness. The "DNA" language is Don Willis' attempt to "sex up" the holder by using marketing spin buzz words like "DNA". In his defense, Don Willis also appropriately refers to it as a "taggant", which is basically some sort of additive to the plastic which can only be "seen" or "detected" by a special machine or under special lighting. There is NOT an RFID chip (or any other type of chip) in the holder, as was suggested by @jello . No where has PCGS suggested that the holder contains an embedded chip of any kind. The full information was released here more than a week ago.
No, because anything that can be manufactured can be manufactured. It is, however, more counterfeit resistant.
I figured as much, but I was just making sure. I get annoyed my non-science people (i.e., business hucksters) trying to use "sex appeal" of cool words to oversell their wares.
It's never ending. It's cool that PCGS is trying to work on the problem but the bad guys will get past it in short order. How hard is it to find and copy tags put into plastic? It sounds easy but I'm not very smart in that area.
One of the major engineering disciplines in China is reverse-engineering. There are legions of people there ready to copy anything from hand tools to smart phones to Russian fighter jets. Whether they try depends on whether there's a potential for return on investment making it worth the effort. In this respect, even if at the end of the day PCGS's new slabs aren't counterfeit-proof, they can simply try to make counterfeiting their product more difficult than counterfeiting NGC's.