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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;jaceravone, post: 971513, member: 9474&quot;]Below is a letter from Don Willis president of PCGS about the ongoing review of the Prez and Sac dollar varieties that are graded and attributed by PCGS.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>As a registry set collector of both sets, I have a few thoughts about this.&nbsp; Prior to 2009, the prez dollar registry set required you to collect both P&amp;D mint marks in both A &amp; B orientation.&nbsp; So each year, one could expect at least 4 coins per president or 16 coins for the entire year.&nbsp;&nbsp; Also, prior to 2009 PCGS had identified at least 3 varieties in the Prez dollar series.&nbsp; These usually were No Edge lettering or Double Edge lettering or some sort of variety.&nbsp; The average collector could put together a very nice graded set for not much money.&nbsp; By not having the 3 known varieties it didn&#039;t bother you all that much because only a few people had them and the chances of you getting one meant that you hit the lottery or were just plain lucky.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Then 2009 hit and now you had the SAC dollar or more appropriately called the Native American dollar series which the edge lettering was begun.&nbsp;&nbsp; All of a sudden you had an explosion of varieties that PCGS was attributing at a staggering rate that even the best collectors of the series were having a heck of a time keeping up with.&nbsp; The funny thing was that none of these varieties had anything to do with the dies themselves but rather the edge inscription process.&nbsp; You had the weak edge letter variety, partial edge letter variety, no edge letter variety along with the standard/normal edge lettering coin.&nbsp; On top of all that you had to find these in both P &amp; D mint marks and A &amp; B edge orientation.&nbsp; WOW! How exhausting!&nbsp; What a turn off.&nbsp; All of a sudden collectors were dropping tons of money to buy these coins from the handful of collectors who had found them.&nbsp; On top of that, these dealers had seemingly convinced PCGS that they ought to attribute these coins and add them to the registry list.&nbsp; I never agreed with this, but as a lowly collector, what am I to do but to stop collecting these coins which I love.&nbsp; Then unbelievably, the varieties found in the Prez dollar series started to double.&nbsp; Oh Oh, we are in trouble now.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>So now here we are in 2010.&nbsp; The new mint sets were released and I am sure PCGS is being swamped with all these coins coming in wanting to be attributed as these new varieties.&nbsp; It must be overwhelming for PCGS....all that money that they are making that is!&nbsp; But they have started to do the right thing....albeit a couple years late.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>As a collector of many series of coins, I welcome all new varieties and finds.&nbsp; This is what makes our hobby exciting and keeps it going.&nbsp; But someone needs to stop and draw a line as to what really is a &quot;variety&quot; and what is crap.&nbsp; I collect the Eisenhower Dollars, and as any IKE collector will tell you, the varieties are out there and new ones are being found everyday.&nbsp; The question then becomes, what varieties do we accept as collectors and which ones do we pass on.&nbsp; This is being debated every day in the IKE series.&nbsp; But I can tell you this, there are many many IKE varieties worthy of attribution over a weak edge Native American Dollar any day. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I can&#039;t sit here and tell you what should be acceptable and what shouldn&#039;t be, but I can say that there needs to be some general collector consensus as to what should be included in a registry set.&nbsp; Let the collectors decided.&nbsp; We are the ones putting these sets together.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>PCGS has put a hold on attributing any more of these coins and at this point is not removing any coins from the sets either.&nbsp; Personally, I don&#039;t mind having edge varieties in the series, but let them be true edge varieties such as the No Edge Lettering or Double Edge lettering instead of the Weak Edge lettering or Partial Edge lettering because that is crap.&nbsp; What is next....weak die strikes from full die strike varieties??? I hope PCGS goes back and removes these from the registry lists and lets get back to really collecting the varieties that are truely important.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><b>A few weeks ago we updated you on our ongoing review of coins that are recognized by PCGS and are included in the PCGS Registry program.&nbsp; One series that we mentioned was Presidential dollars.&nbsp; In particular we have been reviewing the status of the various edge varieties.</b></p><p><b>We are continuing to review the Presidential dollar varieties as well as varieties of Native American dollar.&nbsp; As part of our review we have been consulting with various industry experts as well as our own internal staff.&nbsp; We have not reached a final decision but we wanted to give you an update on where things stood.</b></p><p><b>We have decided that while this issue is being researched, and until we reach a final decision, PCGS will no longer recognize any of the various edges for Presidential or Native American Dollars as unique varieties. This includes Position A and Position B coins.&nbsp; No new varieties will be added to the Registry sets although all coins previously recognized as varieties will remain as part of the set composition.&nbsp; Coins submitted for grading under previously recognized varieties will not be graded as such pending our final decision.</b></p><p><b>We thank you for your support.</b></p><p><b>Best wishes,</b></p><p><b>Don Willis</b></p><p><b>President, PCGS</b>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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