I bought a 1787 Fugio recently for $450 from a coin show regular. He had an XF that he said he sold for $1200. My piece graded VF details at PCGS, env. damage which was not as bad as some I have seen selling at auction, I did not ask for attribution which runs an extra $25. It was the four cinq. variety. Looking over "coinrarities online", he tends to have a lot of Colonials, he attributes everything and gets absolutely top dollar. If someone buys a decent Colonial piece like this, what is better, NGC or PCGS on grading and attribution? It looks like only the attributed pieces with rarity factors attract the buyers.
Colonials are a specialized area. Check out the coinrarties online mentioned to see how specialized and the crazy prices they are getting for them. They must have certain graders who they have do the Fugios. NGC charges less on attributions and the accepted view is they are better at it but that may vary depending on the sector of the market. In my experience PCGS will give you a number on a coin more often than NGC which is crucial with early material and this exchange even supports that: "I had a conversation with a real big wig in PCGS that truly is a giant in numismatics. My question, "why doesn't PCGS teach their graders how to grade circ. Type accurately?" His response was "a finalizer knows how to grade circ. Type." I said "as long as graders look at cleaned coins that are XF and are willing to call them VF, they are on the wrong line for grading an original VF coin." He said oh, "we do net grade for cleaning." I said "that is wrong and shouldn't be done because future buyers, like now, will never learn how to accurately grade." He gave me no response." http://rare-coins.com/app.cfm?template=faqs
