Is there a way to determine when a coin was graded?

I'm wondering if there is a source of data regarding when a TPG graded a coin. I'm interested in looking at graded coins, and seeing the grade inflation that has taken place over the last 10 to 20 years.

Does the certification number give any information about when a coin was graded, or can it be inferred from the certification number?

Many thanks to all who participate on CoinTalk - I really appreciate it!

 

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Good question.

 

You need a "spy" on the inside as each TPGS can tell who/when a coin was examined.

 

The appearance of the slab will give you some idea. There are a number of websites, including pcgs.com, that depict various slab styles and the dates they were used.

Cal

 

typically, you can figure out an approximate age of the grading by the slab that it's housed in.

Since the TPGs have changed their cases several times in the past 10 years, it should be relatively simple to determine when the coin was graded by this fact alone.

 

....and that's as close as you'll ever come.

 

Got it - here is the link to the PCGS slab history:

http://www.pcgs.com/holders

 

Perhaps @Conder101 can help. I think he has a book covering slabs from many of the grading services.

Chris

 

I have a sample slabs book and it is most helpful for dating slabs.

 

I think on some of the newer slabs, at least for NGC, you can look up the cert # and maybe it has the date it was graded?

 

Is there any thing in the barcode that identifies the date?
Then you could just read a barcode reader using your iPhone/andriod.

 

By knowing the generation of the holder you can tell the rough time frame when the coin was HOLDERED (which mayor may not relate to when it was graded), but there is no way to know precisely when it was graded. The TPG's have that information in their records, but not the ones made publicly available.

For the longest time the TPG's tried to maintain the fiction that it didn't matter when a coin was graded and that say a 65 from any era was the same as a 65 from any other. My discussion of when various PCGS slabs were produced was probably one of the reasons I was banned from their forum. Then last year they come out with their own "history of PCGS slabs" (More than ten years after I got banned) that shows I was pretty much correct.

 

Never knew you were banned over there, Conder. You lend and impart so much knowledge.

Guess Uncle Adolph was going through another one of his spells.........again.

 

No. You *can* read that barcode - I do it all the time. Have a look at what it says.

 

That's a really good point. A coin can be reslabbed without the cert. no. changing.
Cal

 

No

NONE of the grading services give this information out. Roughly, the PCGS#s are somewhat sequential, NGCs are not (they print batches of physical invoice paperwork, use other #s for online, etc.). ANACS is somewhat sequential (after the earliest days and with the 9xxxxxx blues before the 4xxxxx yellows).

By somewhat, I mean that (in general) ANACS/PCGS number 1234567 was graded before 1234568. If you look at the threads people posted about coins they just received back, that gives you a rough timepoint (if somebody wanted to harvest the data).

If the # & the case/label style are not consistent it's been reholdered.