FIRST STRIKE Lawsuits - Interesting Observation

In the issue of Coin world there are two articles. On page 1, on a man is suing NGC regarding First Strike designations.

Next on page 5, I find an article titled "How many First Strikes are there?

This article talks about the estimated number of First Strike labeled coins but goes farther talking about NGC's case regarding PCGS's trademark of the term "First Strike".

I will quote the following lines...

A statement NGC made in a trademark case regarding the term "First Strike" defines the definition as the one more commonly accepted in the hobby, and not the one in use by grading firms.
NGC petitioned the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Aug. 14 seeking to cancel Collectors Universe Inc.’s registration of the alleged mark "first strike" for "coin grading and authentication services," claiming use of the mark has damaged NGC’s business.

Now if the next line is FACT....

According to NGC’s petition: "The words ‘first strike’ are used throughout the numismatic industry to refer to coins that are the first to be minted from a new die.

then the Florida man who has filed the lawsuit against NGC will have a MUCH STRONGER case.

 

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" Trust Me with Your Money " .............. The worm turns !

Floyd
in Gaelic means Gray.

 

I hope the suit takes off. I really think the TPG's use of "First Strike" is both misleading and innaccurate.

Down with first strike designation!

 

Mos

If "

"First strike" gets the attention of the courts, and prevails. It will be like opening all doors in a high rise building one at a time.

 

I'll be happy to see one more "designation" gone. It seems so obvious to me... The mint is a business set to make a profit. I would imagine that if it were worthwhile, the mint would pull the first coins struck by each die and produce "First Strike" sets themselves, at a premium of course. The way I understand it, first strike designation only goes to the first X number of coins received by the TPG... Is that right? In which case, a coin struck 5 months down the road and being the very first off of a new die cannot receive the designation even if you carried off the line to the TPG yourself. It makes no sense to me at all... as so many other things regarding TPGs do not.

 

How can a TPG accurately tell when a coin has been struck anyways? I know they sell first strike coins at the U.S. Mint, but other then that there is no way to tell IMO.

 

Where does the mint sell them?? I have never heard of this--and there is no way for a TPG to tell--all they do is look at the shipping lable from the mint and if its in the first few months of issue then sometimes they will mark it as a FS.

Speedy

 

The First Day Coin Covers for the state quarters for one........

 

Is "first day of mintage" the same as "first strikes?" Don't they mean the same thing? Confusing.... How many do they consider "first struck?" And where do they stop??? We could really get technical here, LOL.

 

What about the coin and die sets? I have the peace nickel coin and die set which state the coin is one of the first coins struck with that die.

 

lawsuit

why not class action action those two slab firms and the u.s.mint?.

 

There was a big article about the First Strike designations in COINage magazine this month too. They basically also said what a crock it is. NGC says that its designation is "different" than PCGS's because NGC says "FIRST STRIKES" with the S on the end instead of First Strike. How lame is that? I definitely think that the grading companies should stop using it. I won't buy coins with these designations myself.

Because of the lengthy process that the mint goes through to make collector coins, I think that it would add a lot of work for them to keep track of the one first coin from each die pair through the process. However, if they were to do that, what would be cool is to just package that one up like any other coin, but put a certificate in with it about it being the first strike. Then, people would randomly get them when they receive their coins.

 

Talk about a gray area!! So they can be all first strikes....except for the last one.

 

Canada uses 20,000 strikes for their "First Strike" designations. Other countries use different amounts AND no matter the outcome here the U. S. A. courts, the other countries wiil still offer theirs.

Clinker

 

How about Last Strike or Strikes

 

What hypocrisy, after defining it by shipping date until now.

I hope it has damaged their business because it is fraudulent advertising. I agree with the idea of the coin collecting community boycotting coins certified as "First Strike" or "First Strikes" as well as boycotting any dealer who advertises using those terms. Of course that won't stop the snake-oil salespeople on home shopping channel from offering them, but eventually the grading services will be ashamed enough of what they are doing to stop it.

 

Mos

They take the use of "Hobby " But these are a hard core business, money making operation. Many coins are worth what diamonds are . Small obscure serial numbers would keep sets that were together in a class by them selves. You could still tear down sets for the individual coins, but mixing and match and making sets with leftover boxes and COA`s would diminish the set value. Also if a set was sent to a grader or a coin, the number would be carried to and from the grader without any hesitation of the buyer of the service.
Do graders go through an audit ? Are coins numbers just numbers and we really do not know how many of what coin exists. Barter is a way of life in this " Hobby" it would be nice if it stayed that way. Numbers would also let us look at where are coins are going outside the U.S.A. . It might also influence what we make and how much. Large amounts of coin moving across borders can buy a lot of anything in certain countries. We not only wish our hobby to stay whole but our country ! Can we even guess where the percentages of the mint production goes, or is ? If graders are coin traders there might be a chance of conflict. The govt. is the only source for currency by law. It is regulated to keep our money supply safe. Who regulates and keeps the precious coin market safe ? I do not know , but would be interested .

Floyd

 

Class action. Wouldnt that be an interesting thing? How many of us actually own "stated" "First Strike" coins and how or what would you get if there was a class action suite? just something to talk about.