ANACS vs PCGS/NGC

There are a few coins I'm watching on eBay. One of them is graded by ANACS and the others are NGC or PCGS. I was wondering if the grading by ANACS was consistent with NGC and pcgs. Because the coin graded by ANACS is not being bid on as strongly as the others. Granted there is still 2d left in the auctions so that could obviously change.

 

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ANACS is a totally bona fide Third Party Grader. There are some lovely and desirable coins in ANACS holders, and I have owned quite a number of them over the years. They are not considered on a par with the top two biggies--PCGS, and NGC by MOST collectors. However, they do a good job most of the time, and IMHO, do a great job in identifying problem coins without body bagging all of them. Resale is another matter--ANACS coins tend to sell at lower prices than PCGS and NGC coins. If you intend to keep your coins forever, or don't intend to sell/trade them frequently, you can find many beautiful and desirable coins from slabbed by them at good prices (usually a fair degree lower than the "big two"). I'd not avoid ANACS coins, if the coin happens to be a desirable one, and it appeals to you. The name of the game is being happy with your purchases. That having been said, I do prefer PCGS coins in terms of holding their value and appreciating. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG with ANACS, and that should be said and repeated, as they have been doing it for a long time, and get it right most of the time. Just my opinion.

 

I would have to say it depends on the coin in the holder and the grade. While the older smaller ANACS holder were much closer to PCGS/NGC I would not say the same about the blue or yellow holders. If it is a blue or yellow holder you really need to grade the coin yourself to make the call(this is true for any tpg coin). I think you need to be much more careful with the blue and yellow ANACs holders. Just my opinion.

 

I agree w/Mark:

PCGS/NGC/old ANACS >> new ANACS

 

I think ANACS does just as good as PCGS and NGC. But there's a marketing bias. The exact same coin would sell for the most money in a PCGS holder, somewhat less in an NGC holder, and the least in an ANACS holder. But in my experience, the coins in these holders looks exactly the same. In fact, there are some NGC guidelines that are stricter than PCGS, and ANACS grades many more variety and problem coins. But there's a market bias towards PCGS, not because they are the best necessarily, but they are associated the most with dealers.

But there's opportunity in this situation too. You can buy ANACS coins for less than PCGS coins even though the coin is graded accurately. If you can assess the coin yourself and confirm that, then you get a bargain. Then when it comes time to sell, you can see if you were right by crossing it over to PCGS and sell it with the additional market bias premium.

 

Strongly agree. The old ANACS was much tighter, but PCGS and NGC simply do it better. THe old holder ANACS coins are quite a different story--they have lots of nice coins in them.

 

You better learn to grade for yourself and please pay more attention to the coin than the label. All professional graders are human beings and there is always a margin of error, no matter how proficient they are. As a seasoned veteran collector and dealer, I can tell you that grading is an art and not a science. Most dealers and serious collectors will tell you that they have cracked coins out of slabs and re-submitted to the same service (sometimes several times) and have received a different grade each time. Many that were labeled improperly cleaned have come back in a problem free holder. We have seen coins with beautiful toning returned to the owner with "questionable" toning on the label, which means the graders are either devided on the issue or are not sure. Unfortunately, the coin doctors are becoming much better at their craft, and it is becoming more and more difficult to make accurate determinations. All in all the graders do a pretty fair job. I have to believe that the better known grading services must be a bit upset that watch dogs who put themselves on pedetals are now putting little stickers on already certified coins to identify those that are solid for the grade. Frankly, this is a bunch of unadulterated bs. But wait, there are more opportunists coming on the scene, to grab their share of sucker money. Like I said before, "LEARN HOW TO GRADE FOR YOURSELF. " Take time to do your do dilligence and study. As David Bowers always says, "buy the book before buying the coin. You have the ability to to become a proficient grader totally dependant on your own knowlege. Its your money, and the more you know the sounder your investment. Good luck.

 

I just used ANACS to grade 20 Buffalo nickels.
Why?
1. They were lower cat value date/mm coins.
2. Buffalo nickels were ANACS special of the month ($6/coin in April).

Six ended up in DETAILS holders.
Five graded 25/45/45/45/58.
Three MS-63
Four MS-64
One MS-65
One MS-66

Not bad.

 

Do you think the grades were accurate? Why did the 6 coins end up in details holders, and did you agree with that determination?

 

I find Buffalo Nickels difficult to grade.
I always have to ask myself "wear or weak strike".
And I'm not confident that I come up with the correct answer.

Some of the hairlines from a cleaning were not obvious to my eyes even when using a 9x loupe.
But when I took some camera images they tended to show up a bit.
A Guess: Because of the hard coining metal, abrasion is much less obvious.
If I REALLY wanted to look for abrasive cleaning I would take multiple images of a coin with the lighting coming from different points of the compass.
That would give me a good chance of finding the parallel hairlines I would expect.

I was disappointed with six coins coming up DETAILS.
But I've seen enough evidence to accept the analysis.

Interestingly enough ANACS assigns a definite grade to DETAILS coins.
Two of the coins were labeled "Cleaned/AU 55/Details".
NGC generally says "Cleaned/AU/Details".
And I think PCGS only says "Genuine".

 

PCGS will do the same as NGC and put, for example "Genuine / Cleaning - AU Details". Here's an example.

 

It depends on the holder generation. A good number of old ANACS coins are close to or on par with the top 2. I have seen a number even upgrade, especially in certain series.

 

I don't have enough first hand knowledge to speak definitively regarding ANACS grading in comparison with the top two. However, I think a lot of people would agree that their blue and yellow holders look cheap, and perception is everything when it comes to marketing.

The new PCGS holder is miles ahead of the others with its scratch resistant plastic and next generation hologram.

With that being said I would take a nice looking coin in a rinky dink holder any day.

 

To me it all depend on which PCGS you talking about. The older PCGS are much tighter than the PCGS now. They are starting looser than other 3rd Party coin grader. I like ICG but again it all depend on who is grading the coin. Most people would rather buy PCGS and NGC rather than other 3rd party and they are much more in demand than others as well. I have alot of slab that are graded by PCGS, NGC, Anac, ICG. I only bought them coins in these holder because I do agree what they grade them for. Like someone said above, we all need to learn to grade before getting into buy any coins. Again buy the coin and Not the Slab.

 

Anacs is decent, icg is decent. I don't see much of a difference between these two, just like I don't see much difference between ngc and pcgs. I hear people say pcgs is the strictest/best/brings the highest prices. I disagree. Ngc does does all this as well sometimes. As said, learn to grade. That way, you can find the best deals despite the holder/label.

 

To say one grading co. is better than another I feel is bull, I agree with some of the other post's...you need to grade for yourself. There is no exact science to grading.
I know for a fact that somebody I know, broke open an ANAC's ms69, sent it to PCGS, and got back a grade 70.
With that said, the worth of any coin boil's down to what someone will pay for it,
no matter who grades it, or what the grade is !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

That is why I buy the coin before the Slab's. There are alot of the time PCGS or NGC to me give a bad grade. Like they said sometime they had a bad day. But hey we pay for the grading and to me it doesn't matter if they have a bad day. So what do you do when the grade are not correct then ??

 

Oops! Deleted - I see I posted the same thing months ago!

 

One thing I find disturbing about ANACS is that they grade quite of the few of the modern coins shown by the TV harkers at inflated prices. And they seem to come up with an amazing number of MS-70s and Proof 70s.