Big One = PCGS Secure Plus

Theoretically, if struck by the same die pair, it should. However, flowlines change ever so slightly with every strike. I don't know how sensitive the laser is so I really can't venture a guess as to how well it would perform.

Also, I wonder if a laser that sensitive can validate a coin in a holder...especially if the holder is scratched up.

For instance, you have an expensive coin in a scratched up NGC holder that's suspected to be a stolen SecurityPlus coin. Could PCGS make a 100% determination without cracking out the coin?

 

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I think this new service is a bunch of bull! That being said, it does have a chance of lasting and even becoming a standard.

IF they can perfect some sort of laser grading then it will one day be the standard. And, IF they can pull it off then they should see a huge decrease in their costs and turnaround times. However, all of this will be stifled, IMO, by their greedy attempt to bilk people for an extra ~25% on their already high fee's. So... IF a frog had wings...

 

But the question now.... is their technology able to tell? I mean is it sensitive enough to distinguish between the two? I agree that no 2 coins are identical... but is their technology able to tell? I'd love to read the trial reports on the devices they are using... I'd like to get stats as to how many coins they have ALREADY run through it. I would think to be safe you would have to run several thousand of the same coin through to make sure that you don't get 2 that have identical "fingerprints"... basically I'd like to know the science.

 

I suspect they'll claim that information is Proprietary.

 

and I suspect I'll never send in a coin for that service...

 

someone posted a link on the PCGS board to the product I have seen demonstrated several times and that left me with questions the inventor couldn't or wouldn't answer. Seems to me to be the same or similar technology.

http://www.coinsecure.com/intro.htm

 

LOL! :mouth:

 

Couldn't agree with you more jmon.

You'll see pretty soon when they come out with "smiley faces" for a new grading standard. Sorry to say but it's just more money in the bank for them.

Darn I miss the older grading standard. Soon slabs will be the size of books to hold all the stickers and grading numbers, and lets not forget, the new "+" crapbolla on it...lol

 

Be interesting if a decade or so from now TPG crash & it will result in relying on our own grading opinions like before.:goofer:

 

Lots of people would be lost... that's for sure.

 

Just reading the thread over on CU, I found another thing I don't really like.

The question was asked by Todd:

and Don Willis responded:

So there goes my idea of trying to cross my NGC coin for a +. It looks like if you already have a coin graded, your taking a big risk if your submitting it for the secure plus program.

 

....hmmm, i guess anyone that collects raw coins is out of the loop. or is

that 'loupe'?

 

I am not bashing CAC

CAC has with just a sticker ! Plus all there boasting in the last few weeks in all the coin mags
I think Pcgs will be trying to put them out of the coin market with new labels and anything they can do .Ngc will to soon I think both company's are paid to be right not 2nd guessed
the Pcgs stock holder thinks the green sticker make there company look bad.

Plus the rescission that has been bad for all!

 

Ok, This is my hypothetical. Take an 1880 S Morgan silver dollar and study it for as long as you would like... say it's graded MS64 by NGC and it's blast white like a lot of 80 S's are for arguments sake. Then take this coin and throw it in a pile of 1,000 NGC MS64 1880 S Morgan silver dollars mix it up. Could you pick your own coin out again? I couldn't. No way. I'm sure you would end up with a hand full of coins that are very very similar even if you memorized the nicks and hits of your coin and would have to guess as to which one is yours... you might be right, you might not be.

NGC has graded more then 48,000 coins at that level.

My point is that it just takes 2 different coins to show up with the same fingerprint for this whole thing to be a wash.

Just how sensitive are the machines??? I haven't seen anything besides a comment by Don Willis to my question that suggest that they have scanned "Tens of thousands" of coins...

did any of them show up the same when they shouldn't have?

When you are going to use a technology that has the possibility of flagging a coin as stolen these are things that need to be addressed.

 

I had just read that NGC is doing this as well in cahoots with PCGS. I must have missed that.

Doug, I'm sure that you are correct... These guys are not dumb... they do their homework...but I'm just a very facts oriented guy... I'm not seeing a lot of facts presented... just a lot of people saying this works because we say it does.

Not to mention they are only going to be scanning one side of the coin for the "fingerprint"

 

I read this whole thread and see a lot of skepticism and common sense regarding the "new" grading labeling definitions.
I only buy "slabbed" coins when I am not comfortable with my own skill in determining the authenticity and quality of the coin; for example, early US commemoratives.
I am now convinced that as the new designations hit the market, I, the consumer, am going to pay a higher price for something that has no real base value in relation to the collectability and investment value of the coin. I wonder if these confusing, multiple grading designations and increased costs, passed along to the end consumer, are going to drive people away from the hobby????
just my p.o.v.