*** Please Post Your Pedigreed Coins For Others To Enjoy *** *** If you're don't know what a Pedigreed Coin is, read on... *** A pedigreed coin is one that has (usually) been slabbed by one of the grading services with a special designation on the label denoting either a prior owner (or owners) of the coin, or another historical fact specific to the individual coin that lies in that particular holder. Pedigreed Coins are 'Coins With A Story', and as such hold special interest to many collectors and in some cases non-collectors as well. Shown below, from my own collection, is an example of a pedigreed coin that has previously been designated to show that it was at one time held in the numismatic collection of John Jay Pittman, a prominent collector and former President of the American Numismatic Association. This particular coin is a 1945 Winged Liberty Dime, and has been graded MS66 FB (Full Bands) by NGC. While pedigrees do not increase the technical grade of a coin, a pedigree may increase it's value or desirability in the marketplace. John Jay Pittman was a man of modest income, who used his superior knowledge of numismatics to assemble an extraordinary collection that would eventually sell at auction for over Thirty Million Dollars. A chemical engineer for Kodak by trade, Pittman built his collection like most of us on Coin Talk are doing -- over the years -- searching for and purchasing coins one at a time. Other examples of pedigreed coins from prominent numismatists include 'Eliasberg', 'Bass' and 'Reiver', referencing the surnames of noted twentieth century coin collectors Louis Eliasberg, Harry Bass and Jules Reiver, whose vast accomplishments we will need to discuss in subsequent postings. Collectors of Carson City Morgan Dollars are familiar with the uncirculated CC coins sold by the General Services Administration from 1972-1974. When certified with the GSA designation on the label, these are another example of pedigreed coins. Major grading services have checks and balances in place to insure that only coins deserving of the designation are certified with a pedigree noted on the label. In the case of the GSA Carson City Morgan Dollars, you will find the appropriate pedigree designations on both slabbed coins as well as coins still in the original holders as shipped by the General Services Administration about 40 years ago. The determination of whether a GSA Dollar is slabbed in plastic or left in its original goverment issued holder depends on the preference of the submitter and the policy of the grading service at the time of certification. Anther example of coins with a goverment-related pedigree is the 'U.S. Vault Collection'. Some pedigreed coins come from neither a numismatic collection nor government storage or resale. Occasionally, extremely large caches of coins are 'discovered' or left to heirs. These accumulations of coinage are often referred to as 'hoards'. Examples of coins pedigreed from these accumulations include the 'Omaha Bank Hoard' and the 'Wells Fargo Hoard'. Depending on the preference of the cache's owner or submitter, details about the history and creation of the accumulation may be published in detail or kept completely confidential, much to the chagrin of some in the numismatic community. It's ironic that coins from some numismatic 'hoards' have a higher perceived value in the marketplace if the cache's biography is left to the buyers' imagination (and hobby innuendo) than if the true history of the cache was accurately released. Sample Slabs are arguably another type of pedigreed coin. A Sample Slab usually contains a common coin that a third party grading service has given away for promotional purposes. While some of these coins have a grade printed on the label, many are just labeled 'Sample' or show an ambiguous grade like 'FA 00' as a filler for space on the slab insert. Scarcer is the Sample Slab with its own sub-pedigree, such as the NGC 'ANA 100th Anniversary' samples distributed in limited numbers to selected attendees at the organization's coin show in Chicago, Illinois in 1991. Many sample slabs have sequential or sample-specific certification numbers (i.e. 12345678) where the number denotes only a sample slab and is not specific to the coin inside. Like all slabbed coins, Sample Slabs from scarce or rarely seen holder types command more desirability in the marketplace. In recent years, an entire numismatic subculture has formed, devoted to the collecting of Sample Slabs in their own right. The popularity of competitive and non-competitive 'Registry Sets' has brought yet another type of pedigreed coin to the hobby. 'Vanity Slabs' emblazoned with the name of the registry competitor or exhibitor are now in the marketplace. Qualified registry participants have the option of naming the collection and the pedigree, so long as the pedigree name selected doesn't cause confusion or conflict with the 'Classic Pedigrees' (such as 'Eliasberg' or 'GSA') already in the marketplace. Qualified collectors pay an additional fee to have the coins reholdered with the vanity or registry pedigree. While registry pedigrees are viewed by some people as merely vanity issues, some registry pedigrees may add desirability (and value) to the coin inside, especially if the collection it resided in was top in its category or the collector was known for only buying the best coins for the grade or type. Pedigreed holders contains coins 'with a story to tell'. In addition to the various types of pedigrees described above, you may occasionally run across 'Celebrity Pedigrees' ('Kareem Abdul-Jabbar' is an example), 'Double Pedigrees' (such as 'Eliasberg/Clapp') and even 'Geographical Pedigrees' which sometimes are former registry coins that the owner chose to reholder under an ambiguous locational name. 'Geographical Pedigrees" may also represent coins from the collection of a celebrity who prefers to remain anonymous. While the value of any coin housed inside a pedigreed holder (and indeed the value of the pedigree itself) are always individual to that coin and holder, President David Hall of the Professional Coin Grading Service did chime in about which pedigree is held in his highest esteem. "In my opinion, the most valuable pedigree of all is Eliasberg," Hall said, in a post on the PCGS forum a year ago this week. "I personally will always pay a little extra for an Eliasberg pedigree," Hall continued. "There are some cases where different pedigrees may carry more weight, say Naftzger for large cents, but in general Eliasberg is the most important pedigree." *** Please Post Your Pedigreed Coins For Others To Enjoy *** I've also created a 'Pedigreed Coins' group here at Coin Talk. The purpose of the group is to create a meeting place for owners and enthusiasts of Pedigreed Coins of all types. You can join it here: http://www.cointalk.com/groups/102/ -The Coin Trader
Unfortunately, many pedigreed coins do get bumped up when it comes to grading. Very few knowledgeable collectors will dispute this because there have been too many cases where entire collections were over-graded purely because of who the collection belonged to.
Coin Trader, I don't want to dampen the mood, but I think this might be a very short thread. I tried this 2 years ago with very poor results. Post your Pedigrees Hopefully your outstanding write up will inspire everyone to post their pedigreed coins. Otherwise, it might just be you and me playing dueling banjos. Here is my example of a pedigreed coin from the "Monsterman" himself, Gregg Bingham. Coincidentally, this coin is also pedigreed to the Appalachian Hoard which were never designated as such when they were originally slabbed in September of 2000. Gregg played in the NFL for the Houston Oilers and is one of the guys at the top of the classic commemorative registries. If you haven't seen his registry set, I encourage all toning freaks to take a peek. Bingham's Star * Coins Those of you are fans of Weimar White and Ricko should not open that link. Paul
Cough...Cough...Reiver...Cough...Cough..., thankfully Mark also listed his opinion of most coins. The biggest issue I see with the TPG pedigree idea is the lack of adding the whole pedigree to the coin. Take a look at the Dan Holmes sale of large cents, some of those coins have pedigrees going back a hundred plus years and include previous owners like Hayes, Newcomb, Brand, Sheldon, Naftzger, etc. For instance here is the pedigree on his S-5: Ex W. F. Johnson 6/1892-Dr. Thomas Hall-W. S. Sisson, Henry Chapman 4/1916:988-Wayte Raymond (The United States Coin Co.)-Henry C. Hines 1945-Dr. William H. Sheldon 4/19/72-R. E. Naftzger, Jr., New Netherlands Coin Co. 11/1973:326-Stack's-unknown-Stack's 10/90:1591-Tony Terranova-Stack's-Larry Stack-Stack's/American Numismatic Rarities auction 6/26/04:4028 (unsold)-Stack's (privately, via Chris McCawley) 7/8/04. So which one is it, the chapman S5, the Hines S5, the Sheldon S5, or the Homes S5? I guarantee when it's sold next it will be the 'current owners' S5. My point is, listing a pedigree from a collector on a slab seems odd because the types of coins which populate the types of collections which get pedigree designations are likely to be bought by other collectors who form collections which will also be worthy of pedigree designations. It's not a static thing, but the label can only have one name. To the idea that certain pedigrees bring a bump in value it's interesting that you note Naftzger for large cents. I suspect the premium Naftzger coins bring has more to do with almost all of them being CC1 more so than being associated with this person or that. Lastly, two other pedigree designation you did not bring up was a coin being a certain plate coin in a major numismatic reference book, for instance if a coin was plated in Sheldon or plated in Hayes, or being a discover peice for a variety or die state. I personally find these two to be pretty cool and noteworthy.
This is my only slabbed coin, which also happens to be from the Binion collection: Now here's an interesting story...I never really bothered to look it up until I saw this thread. o_o
Richmond Collection I got some V-nickels from the Richmond Collection. NGC slabbed something like 3,600 coins from the Richmond collection. [I bought three of them & one of the coins was not worthy of the slab grade IMO]. I was told that the Richmond Collection included a near-complete set of US coins from 1839 to 1955. My only experience was with some of the proof nickels. Here is one of the slabs:
