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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GoldFinger1969, post: 4204665, member: 73489&quot;]<i><b>Respectfully disagree, C101.&nbsp; </b></i></p><p><br /></p><p>I do believe coins are a &quot;safer&quot; investment thanks to the TPGs.&nbsp; Not SAFE -- but safer.</p><p><br /></p><p><b><i><span style="color: #ff0000">BIG difference !!!</span></i></b></p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;We basically have a duopoly with PCGS and NGC; the market share for ANACS and ICG must be &lt;5% of new submittances, if that.</p><p><br /></p><p><b><span style="color: #ff0000"><i>That was NEVER going to happen. </i></span></b> Each coin is UNIQUE....coins are not stocks or bonds that are identical.</p><p><br /></p><p>Even I, a rookie/novice at the time, realized that.&nbsp; Eventually, my Wall Street compatriots probably realized it, too.</p><p><br /></p><p>Well, if you deal with someone and have a coin that you are convinced has been misgraded you may (or may not) have return privileges.</p><p><br /></p><p><b><i>But again....nobody could&nbsp; - or SHOULD --&nbsp; possibly think that coins could be exchanged interchangeably.</i></b> Stocks and bonds are 100% liquid and interchangeable. A share of Microsoft traded on NASDAQ is the same as one traded between 2 institutions or on an exchange.</p><p><br /></p><p><b><span style="color: #ff0000"><u>No 2 numismatic dated coins are EXACTLY the same.&nbsp; They may have the SAME EXACT GRADE -- but they are NOT exactly the same.</u></span></b></p><p><br /></p><p>For practical purposes, you can say that today&#039;s MS and PF coins are identical or nearly identical because the minting and striking process has improved by light-years from the 1950&#039;s and 1920&#039;s and before.&nbsp; <b>But that&#039;s not what was at state 30 years ago with the TPGs and older coins.</b></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>(1)&nbsp; The market dropped to 25% of initial quotes because there was a bubble in PRICING.&nbsp; This isn&#039;t a reflection of the merits of the TPGs.</p><p><br /></p><p>(2)&nbsp; Again, coins were more &quot;fungible&quot; but not perfectly interchangeable and marketable like stocks or bonds.&nbsp; So nobody on Wall Street had any illuisons, and nobody who was a professional coin collector/numismatist (who SHOULD have known better than the Wall Street guys) should have had any illusions either.</p><p><br /></p><p>(3)&nbsp; The investment funds were never set up as far as I know.&nbsp; Both Merrill Lynch and Kidder Peabody were merely exploring the possibility.&nbsp; They probably realized (a) there wasn&#039;t enough demand (b) there weren&#039;t enough coins to justify funds of sufficient size and (c) they realized that even with TPGs that coins weren&#039;t interchangeable enough such that MS-65&#039;s themselves differed greatly to a professional.</p><p><br /></p><p><b><u>TPGs closed &quot;the gap&quot; for the average coin collector or the rookie or novice.&nbsp; But not enough to justify Wall Street $$$$...or win-over every long-time veteran coin collector/numismatist.</u></b>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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