Back in the days when I had NGC Registry Sets (5-10 years ago) on occasion when I loaded a new coin into one of my registry sets I would get a message saying something like "your coin is registered to someone else." I don't remember whether those coins were in NGC or PCGS slabs. But the TPG associated a coin with a particular person (not me). I don't know what they did as a follow-on but in short order they accepted my entry. QUESTIONS: How extensive are the TPG's databases in terms of who owns a particular coin? Can I register my slabbed coins with them? Seems to me that would help with insurance claims (see my other post about valuing coins).
I don't think that in itself is proof of ownership. A person can go to either PCGS or NGC and register or attempt to register any number of cert numbers that aren't theirs. Many will probably already be registered to an owner, but probably more won't be registered to anyone until this non-owner is successful.
I'm pretty sure they (NGC) just run the number against all other numbers currently in the registry and if they find that the coin is already registered, it automatically generates a request for the old owner to release their coin. The old owner gets the notification and they have the option to release the coin immediately by following the prompts on the form, or they can dispute it and claim that they still own the coin. If they do nothing, I think that NGC automatically removes the coin from their collection after 2-3 days. I have been on the old owner side of this many many times. Whenever I sell a coin, I always forget to delete the thing from my darn registry before I sell it.
Yes, this is exactly what happens. I just got one of those emails a couple of weeks ago. I have never had someone try to register a coin that I still owned. I would think that, given how competitive the registry is, there would be at least some level of fraud, but I haven't seen it.
