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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Conder101, post: 166346, member: 66&quot;]Well it is copyrighted, but I hold the copyright.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Guest Commentary</p><p>Majors mum on authenticity guarantees</p><p><br /></p><p>Michael Schmidt of Portland, Ind., also known as &quot;Conder101,&quot; is a collector and a researcher of slabs and slab varieties. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I enjoyed Beth Deisher’s Editorial on verifying the expertise of authenticators in the Oct. 2 issue of Coin World. There was a great deal of sensible advice contained therein that should be of great value for newer collectors, if they will only take it to heart. </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I did get a bit of a laugh out of her advice about checking out the grading services’ written warranties on authentication. I especially liked the line, &quot;An encapsulated coin without warranty of authentication is worthless and dangerous.&quot; </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A great many of the third- and fourth-tier grading services do have written warranties of authenticity on their Web sites. Some of them are a bit vague about what specifically your compensation will be if an item is found to be fraudulent, but they do seem to imply that you will at least get your slabbing fees back. </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; What most of them do not have is any form of warranty on the actual grading of the coin. Most say something like since grading is subjective it is impossible to guarantee that different people will evaluate the same way so no guarantee of the grade should be implied by the opinion of the grade appearing on the holder. </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; On the other hand, the major services on their Web sites all make sure to specifically inform the collector that the grading on their slabs is guaranteed and what the collector’s options are and how he will be compensated if the grading of the coin is wrong. However, none of the major services have any specific written guarantee of authenticity! There is nothing about how a collector will be compensated if his coin turns out to be a fake. </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; After several years on the Professional Coin Grading Service coin forums, a few &quot;troublemakers&quot; have agitated on this topic enough that, in at least one ad in Coin World, PCGS did include the line, &quot;All coins in PCGS holders are guaranteed to be authentic.&quot; Not on their Web site, just in an advertisement. That is the sum total response of several years of questioning on the forum, and in my case 20 years of pointing out to anyone who would listen that their &quot;guarantee&quot; contained no discussion about authenticity. </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The other major services Web sites are no better. No written guarantee of authenticity, no discussion of how a collector would be compensated. </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; By those standards, and Deisher’s advice, it would sound like maybe the collectors would be better off with the third- and fourth-tier slabs. At least they do guarantee authenticity. But no, that isn’t true either. </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The real lesson to be learned is to realize that there are no guarantees, and it is very important that a collector, especially a novice, must endeavor to learn as much as possible about the coins he collects and not to trust any grading service blindly. </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Getting advice from those more experienced is good, but before you spend serious money on a coin, you really should understand as much as possible about what you are buying and not be dependant upon others. (&quot;Serious money&quot; is a relative term. For some it’s $100, some others wouldn’t flinch at $100,000.) </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Now I admit, to date, the major grading services have been very forthright and have always stood behind their product and compensated the collector. But past behavior does not mandate future behavior. Having paid off others in the past does not obligate them to pay off for newly discovered fakes in the future. For that you need a written promise or guarantee, something that someone can point to and say, &quot;You have made this obligation!&quot; </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; So I have to wonder about the major grading firms. Why are they afraid of putting their necks on the line with a written, specific, guarantee of authenticity, and the little guys aren’t? CW[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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