At a coin club auction last year I picked up a freezer bag of eight nickels. There is one for each year from 1952 to 1959 and they all have some common elements: They were slabbed by a company called SGS and they have cert numbers. They are all from the Denver mint. They are all graded MS68. So what was SGS? Were they reliable or just a flash in the pan? I'd like some information on them and their reputation. I bought them partly out of curiosity and partly because I needed to fill some holes and upgrade others.
It was a self grading service grading their own coins and operated under the name Abon Coins in Mansfield, OH. In 2014 the company was raided by federal law enforcement for fraud. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2014/07/23/secret-service-raids-abon-coin-shop/13054083/ Also a Coin Talk Thread. https://www.cointalk.com/threads/sgs-coins-exposed.85258/
My favorite part of that usa today article: Hal Gobeille, 64, of Mansfield, had his lawn motor stolen Tuesday from his yard in broad daylight. Gobeille said he walked into Abon Wednesday as agents were conducting the raid. He was looking to buy another lawn mower. "As I was leaving, I thought that looks familar in the back lot," he said on spotting his stolen mower. Gobeille said he was mad and authorities said they would release the mower to him.
SGS is(was?) pretty awful in their grading practices....but I don't think they reached top-tier TPGs who will literally throw anything into a plastic coffin NGC LM65 PCGS LM63 - details/oil stains
I don't have a real problem with them, even after reading what SGS was all about. Given that I needed nickels in that date range, I can use most of them. I may have overpaid at $10 for them, but I don't mind much. I'll probably crack them out and put in 2x2s. Then sell the duplicates.
A couple of months ago I bought a silver proof Kennedy lot of slabbed SGS coins. I was really pleased with them, but that was because I paid slightly less than spot for them. I think some buyers think the slab is toxic. In reality it’s just not an accurate reflection of the coins actual grade. Basically don’t hold it against the coin that the slab is bad....