Ok so as an "NGC guy" that only really knows what a PCGS slab looks like, not of their business, I was reading on their website about Secure Plus. Maybe there's a long thread about this topic already but I didn't find it in a search. My question is, how are they using their scanned information? It says each coin is photographed and scanned for verification purposes so they have a finger print of that coin. Does this mean if I cracked out a coin out of a PCGS secure plus slab and re-submitted it to them, they would scan it and know what coin that is if they got it back? Would it receive the same grade and serial # again? This would essentially end gradeflation if they were locked in. It says in the info this will solve the population inflation so I assume that would be what they're doing? Lastly, has anyone tried it?
I think Secure Plus had more to do with the coin’s authenticity than grade. No cracked out coin is guaranteed to receive the same grade.
NGC has their own version of Secure Plus. From what I've seen, they are quite similar. They claim they could do that. But I seriously doubt they spend the money and time scanning every raw coin submitted to them just to see if it had been previously slabbed in a Secure Plus slab. And that's what it would take to find out if it had been. I'm pretty sure the only raw coins they scan are those submitted under the Secure Plus tier. edit - I would add that it is claimed that in the event of theft, that a coin, even if cracked out of its slab, could be scanned and identified. But I'm not aware of any case where it's ever happened. And I seriously doubt it would stand up in court given how common and how easy is for pictures of the exact same coin to look entirely different. And that's all they'd have to go by, their scanned picture. Not necessarily, because anything could have happened to the coin after it was cracked out, thus changing the grade. And while I can't swear to it I think coins in Secure Plus slabs can be resubmitted for regrading just like any other coin already slabbed. And there is never any guarantee resubmitted coins will get the same grade and or special designations. Any and all copper coins would be a good example of that. The one advantage the Secure Plus, and NGC's version of it, have is that all coins submitted under that tier are run through the "sniffer" to see if the coin has anything on it that shouldn't be there, thus rendering the coin ungradable. But other than that, there really isn't any advantage that I know of to using these secure plus grading tiers.
Hmmm. Doesn't seem like they'd be getting the most out of the system. From the website: "Another benefit for the hobby is that if a PCGS Secure Plus-certified coin is ever lost or stolen and subsequently resubmitted to PCGS, it can be automatically identified and the recovery process will begin for the rightful owner." This would indicate every coin is being scanned for being lost or stolen unless the submitter was going to list on the form that the coin may be stolen, so scan please? "If a coin has been previously registered in our system it will be identified whenever it's again scanned by us, so duplication of coin information will be eliminated. As a result, population reports, condition census and other potentially distorted information will be much more accurate for PCGS Secure Plus coins." So this is just a tier that may or may not be selected. Did they create a new and separate population report?
Let's just assume they do scan every coin. How would they know it had been lost or stolen unless they have a list of every lost or stolen coin out there ? And if they have such a list how and where would they get it ? And how often would that list be updated to include, and by whom, to include all those coins that had been recovered and or previously identified ? And what about all the resubmissions, and how many of those have either changed color/s due to toning or have additional contact marks ? Do you think their system can recognize and identify those coins with any degree of certainty - based on pictures ? Now I don't the answers to any of this, but it seems like a monumental bookkeeping task to me - that somebody would have to pay for. What I'm getting at is they have slabbed over 33 million coins, and that's just US coins. That's a whole lot of coins to keep track of and be able to identify by picture. I have no idea, but I've never seen nor heard of more than one.
