Perusing a little local auction and happened upon this Bicentennial half. It wasn't getting any action so I put a little bid on it mainly because of the slab. I hadn't run into this American Alliance Coin Grading outfit before. Then I thought I would do a 76-S search on Ebay and there were a number of halves available in this AACGS slab. Is AACGS an upstart or have they been around a while?
They have been around for quite a while Randy. I bought a 71S in that slab years ago, probably 10 or more.
Two versions of that slab, with a slightly different company name (American Fidelity Coin Grading Service). Amanda posted about them a decade ago on PCGS' forum: https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/945186/quot-independent-quot-third-party-grading-services Adding: These are the only people who have any "information" about them (no web site, etc. I can find) - wonder if this is actually an FPG... https://www.americancointreasures.com/Graded_Coins_s/287.htm
It looks like they sell their own coins that they assign grades to, which would disqualify them as a "third party" grader entirely if so, by definition. I don't know this as a fact, but that's what it definitely looks like (based on the fact there seems to be only one company selling them, which kind of makes the "grading service" not seem independent of it). Tried finding any mention of them and they don't seem to have an internet presence independent of this one company or any place someone not in this company can send coins to be graded. Which kind of makes them look like a self-slabber with extra steps.
Oh I poked around a bit more and, well... This is not promising, when the first result on YouTube has the word "scam" in the title lol. Self-slabber, definitely, and I've found Reddit threads about them going back as far as 2014. Treat any coins in their plastic as raw coins. Video above, if you don't have 10 minutes to watch it, notes that they tend to only have graded coins of relatively low value, and have a tendency to overgrade by any reasonable standard. Not as bad as SGS but still. As an example the person who made that video took one of the best looking coins he found in their holder, a 1968-S proof Kennedy half, that they graded PR-67... sent it to PCGS and they gave it PR-64 Cameo. $20 lesson on a coin not worth $20 but it made great content and hopefully he got his money back on the YouTube ad revenue.
