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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cwtokenman, post: 43107, member: 2100&quot;]I would like to emphasize that my comments about tpgs are derived from what I have seen of their work with exonumia, primarily Civil War tokens. Since the OP&#039;s main concern was with authenticity, I agree that the top tpgs do a commendable job here, and the OP should have full confidence that a slabbed item is authentic. I also stated that authentication is the only reason I would personally consider using their services, although I have not, and have no plans to do so.</p><p><br /></p><p>Exonumia slabs are a relatively recent venture of the tpgs, and inexperience with this area may have been a factor in the mistakes that were made, although IMO that is no excuse. Since only a small number of cwts are slabbed, and populations are so low, any given cwt may conceivably have been the first of that specific ID they may have seen. Granted, not much to reference from. Of the maybe 100 or so cwt slabs I have viewed, 4 had significant identification errors on the label. I can&#039;t speak for anyone else, but I consider that to be an unacceptable error rate. There was a store card identified with a patriotic series id #, a totally incorrect store card id # (state, city and merchant designations), and (2) with the incorrect merchant&#039;s name on the label. There were a few additional ones with minor mistakes as well.</p><p><br /></p><p>Minor mistakes would include the occasional errors of omission, such as the metal desigantion (especially important for off-metals) or merchant&#039;s name. When the tpgs have noticable trouble indicating exactly what something is, I find it hard to have any confidence in their telling me how nice it is (grade). Cwt collectors pretty much all use the same id numbering system, but the tpgs have come up with their own hybred id system, that only they use. Or maybe they are trying to use the standard system and have not yet taken the time to understand how it is to be used. I am not sure. But, it is not a complicated system, and many other types of tokens utilize a similar system format.</p><p><br /></p><p>I will not get into any specifics as to my opinion of their cwt grading abilities, but I will say that even some of the most adament slab supporters have been apalled at some of the high grades received by some of the cwts I had brought to their attention. There are a few slabbed MS graded examples currently on ebay that I suspect of showing wear, although the pictures are not as large as I would like in order to arrive at a more definite conclusion.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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