What is everyone's feelings on slabbing World notes? It seems that it is much less common for them to be sent in for grading than US notes. Is that because the TPGs are US-Based, or the World Paper Money market deals mostly in raw notes? Who has a better reputation PCGS/PMG? Do either of those have good reputations with certain countries? I would be interested in grading some UK and french banknotes at this time.
Are they really worth having graded? I ask because I see lots of stuff on eBay and Teletrade that I wonder why someone would even bother even if they are high grade notes because the value is really not that much of an issue. Frankly I haven't had any of my British graded, in fact none of mine have been submitted by me. I own a few graded notes, USSR etc. but even those were somebodies bulk submission and were only part of a lot I won on Lyn Knight's site. Unless they are rare, older, and high value I don't see the purpose.
I think that is perfect logic for sending anything off for grading, but High value is relative. Also, the encapsulation/protection and re-sale factors are all very important to me. Take the France 95b I posted on new acquisitions. I picked that up for about $125, I believe SCWPM has it in UNC for $350. $350 is high value to me - it would be my most valuable world note. I did see one in a PMG 66 EPQ holder sell for $250+shipping on eBay (from a Korean Seller) not too long ago as an example of market price. That example is a very fragile thin paper note, and it has no pinholes, natural paper wave, and not doctored in my opinion which any French note collectors will tell you is very tough to find from that era. A PQ rating here comes in huge IMO. Scottishmoney - you stated when I posted the Bank of England 1945 Five Pound note that many of these have been worked on - if that comes back a High VF, or even XF without any "cleaned" or "pressed" comments for around a $200 value (I paid $100) that's worth sending off for grading to me. Although I really do appreciate the opinions - the purpose of my post wasn't to inquire to have notes graded or not - it was to solicit peoples opinion on which TPG has the best reputation in world paper money. There are plenty of people like me who want to continue buying $100-$200 pieces raw and send them for grading, and those who would like to buy the graded notes.
From experience PMG seems to do a lot lot more with foreign notes - but I would be thorough in making sure they accurately describe the note on the holder. Krause prices are a suggestion, some are too low and many others are too high. They are based on what their contributors give them - and knowing some of the contributors I know they price stuff they want low, and stuff they sell high.
Thanks scottishmoney, I see much more PMG on the market as well, and I have seen plenty of mistakes on their holders as well. That's very interesting that the collusion is that obvious.
One of the problems that the rest of the world has with US TPG companies is their grading standards. In the rest of the world a note is either UNC or it is not. Under the IBNS standards and those employed outside the US there cannot be 10 levels of UNC grades. Teller marks, rounded corners and any other handling does not an UNC note make outside the US yet these are all acceptable in the UNC grades used by the US TPG companies. The general rule that most of the world note dealers and collectors I know use when it comes to US TPG'd world notes is to take the grade with a grain of salt and assume that the TPG assigned grade is at least one grade lower on the world standards unless it is 66 or higher (e.g, a TPG 64 is an AU note).
Personally I don't have any of my notes graded, and some of the reason is what Jim states above. The world outside USA does not use the standards the TPG's grade to, and I don't want to end up with a stack of notes with the "wrong" grade on them. I have had folks send me scans of TPG'd (usually PMG) notes, and ask me "is this really a 62?" or some such thing, when we're both looking at a fold in the note. Now what, cut the note out of the holder? Try to sell it with a post-it attached with your own comments? It's like knowing how they score a football game and expecting to know how they score basketball. Dave
