So I was comparing the census & population reports on PCGS & NGC's website. I was looking at the number of ASEs graded each year... couple things stuck out to me 1) the amount of coins graded spiked in the recession, much more so than sales of ASEs from the mint (in 09' there were 475K ASEs graded, in 2010 there were 915K ~almost double, sales from mint were up ~10%). So my question is if anyone has a good explanation as to why one year might have much different % of fresh mint ASEs graded as compared to other years? (I'm guessing anniversary coins are going to be typically higher.) 2) Previous to 2010, NGC was doing ~200K ASEs a year - more than PCGS but not by much. Then in 2010 NGC essentially dominated the market ~775k ASEs graded vs 135k PCGS, and ever since has done more coins than PCGS. So my question here is what the heck happened in 2010? Did NGC institute some newly designed pricing that made grading ASEs that much more attractive, especially compared to PCGS? Finally, looks like (using ASEs as a proxy) PCGS has slowly but surely taking back share from NGC in modern coins. Am I off basis on that thinking? Sorry for long winded questions, but I love digging into historical data.
The snide answer - backed somewhat by empirical observation on my part - is that it was discovered to be a *ton* easier to get a 70 from NGC than PCGS. And with these coins, it's about the slab and not the coin. Perhaps NGC chose to undercut PCGS on bulk submissions for them.
I don't think many people would disagree with that. I would add too that for the Population reports with moderns like that, PCGS seems to have a tendency to post a chunk of what they graded that is representative of the percentage breakdown for 69s and 70s and are not always that quick keeping it updated with the exact number once its into the several thousands in the pop report.
Don't worry about being snide. It makes sense. Any other comment by me on the idiocy of graded bullion coins probably would be redacted by a moderator.
There were no 2009-W Proof American Silver Eagles minted, thus many fewer ASE slabbed that year. 2009 Silver Eagle Mintages Bullion Mintage: 30,459,000 Proof Mintage: None Minted Uncirculated Mintage: None Minted
