What Does a PCGS Guarantee Mean?

If I buy a slabbed coing graded MS64 by PCGS, and they say it is guaranteed, what does that mean exactly? I mean, if they have a reputation for grading accurately, then that is of value as people recognize their reputation. But if I have a coin graded MS64 that I want to sell, and no one who looks at it thinks it should be graded that high and offers an MS63 price, does the guarantee mean anything?

And sorry if this is a stupid question ... I'm very new to this.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I'm not really sure, but can you post pictures so we can tell you if the grade is accurate?

 

Well, no. It was just a hypothetical question I posed.

 

You can send in coins for review. I haven't personally done this but from what I understand if for some reason they find the coin to be not what the holder says it is, they may buy it from you for fair market value of the grade assigned. I would call them and find out what the steps are for an appearance review.

 

Oh my bad, didn't see the "if". :whistle: When that happens, you let us know. I have not seen an overgraded PCGS coin ever.

 

dont know fo sdure but my grant with star half says PGCS gaurentee also i think it just means and its my own opinion that its an authentic coin

 

proably just means that too the grader at PGCS HE OR SHE BELIVES ABOVE ALL DOUBT THAT THIS MS 64 MEETS HIS OR PGCS STANDARDS OF THAT PERTICULAR GRADE LIKE MS 64 NOT AN DOUBT IN THE GRADERS MIND OF ITS GRADE AND THAT REALLY MEANS SOMETHING BUT ANY MORE ITS HARD TOO SAY IF THESE STANDARDS HOLD UP .

 

Ya haven't been around much hu?...... Keep looking.

Matt nailed this one - if you buy a coin from PCGS, or NGC, or pretty much any grading company, then you have their backing that the coin is what they say. They will either replace/ buy/regrade/etc to keep their word as well.

Now - note on this as well -
There are alot of fly-by-night grading companies out there - you said that you are new to this game, so here is the key.
Buy yourself some books, and read, read, read. I would suggest getting:
The ANA Grading Guid
Photograde
PCGS Grading Guide

Those are just a good start - add other books that are on the topics that you are interested in.

The grading companies that I would suggest you stay with until you are better at grading are:

NGC
PCGS
ICG
ANACS
DGS
PCI

PCI is out of business now, and DGS has taken over the company. ICG and ANACS aren't always the best, but they are alright.

Join Heritage, it is free, and use their database to check out coin prices - before you buy a coin check the database for the same type/grade/date/etc....it will show you what the past sales have been.

Most of all - have fun!

Speedy

 

lol not with certified coin. I have only had one PCGS certified coin and it was right on or even undergraded. I also have a NGC graded coin that I feel is on target as well. I go to shows pretty frquently, but a lot of times they jack up the prices just because the coin is certified so I don't really pay attention to those as much. Out of the certified coins on here I have seen, they have been spot on everytime IMO. Maybe I have seen one or two I thought were overgraded, but not really anything to speak of.

 

A large part of the PCGS guarantee is the authenticity of the coin. By slabbing a coin PCGS is guaranteeing that it is genuine. If later it is determined that the coin is counterfeit, altered, etc. PCGS will reimburse the owner of the coin the fair market value of a genuine coin of that grade.

 

I have returned a few coins to PCGS for regrading, two recently - and this service is free. It was a PCGS proof 65 red Indian cent, but it had some red brown toning on the portrait, probably from an old fingerprint. So I sent it to PCGS and they felt it was now a PF64 RB so they offered to buy it back for $2750 straight, or $2500 and they would give me back the coin in a PF64 RB holder. I accepted the latter. At the same time, I sent a circulated semi-key Lincoln that had an old but large gouge on the reverse and a brassy tint to the whole coin which means it had an old cleaning. It was in a PCGS VF20 holder. However, PCGS felt it was properly graded. So I asked for a "second opinion" since I strongly disagreed with this, and they gave the coin to David Hall. He said the coin was "somewhat net graded" since it had VF30+ details and felt the VF20 grade was appropriate. I was actually very surprised about this response since I felt the coin had two issues. Oh well, you win some you lose some.

Also, I want to mention, and many do not realize this, but PCGS also offers a "spot review" which means if your coin has "grown" a spot, you can send it in to PCGS, though this service costs $25-$30, and if they can, they will "remove" the spot (I have no idea how they do this process), reholder the coin, and send it back to you. If, however, the spot is not removable and it affects the grade, then they will do the buy-back process.

One last thing I want to mention is that if you strongly disagree with a grade of a coin, you can pay for a "presidential review" to have David Hall or some other mucky muck take a second look at your coin and see if they agree/disagree with the assigned grade. I have also done this, without much success, but sometimes it's worth a try.

Any way, sorry to be so long winded, and hope this helps someone out there.

 

Really?...I had to pay for shipping both ways. My coin had PVC on it - they removed it and re-holdered it and sent it back. I was really glad they did because I have yet to find another one with the same variety!

Speedy

 

i have...i will post one tonight...we all make mistakes

 

Sorry, I just meant you didn't have to pay a submission fee. I live only a couple miles from PCGS and pick up/drop off coins personally all the time, so I forgot about those darn shipping fees - yes, you do have to pay those. Also, I think you do have to pay the $8.00 handling/form fee too.

 

I agree AJ, and if you look at enough coins, you will see just about everything

 

..........SURELY you jest!

 

sorry for not posting my pics last night, i am in the middle of a perfect storm computer wise...........i am down in most functions, it sux

pcgs for the most part ....in my opinion.....has stopped grading and started assigning values to coins instead.....in other words they will assign a value to a coin, the number on the slab will coincide with the street price of said given grade, regardless of it;s techincal grade. thats what i am seeing in my favorite series at least.

i have sent back 2 coins...each.... to both pcgs and ngc this month.....ngc sent the coins to ncs and they were doctored/conserved/cleaned...whatever, but they both came back in ngc holders....the pcgs coins are still up in the air

i expect a spot review on one and a reholder on the other, i will share my experience here when i know the outcomes

 

.........no problem, just buy coins with the CAC sticker!!

































































































...........insert tongue in cheek now.

 

If the coin submitted is re-evaluated to be of a lesser grade , they will give it the correct grade and reimburse you a percentage of the difference of the fair market value between the conflicting grades or the hammer price , which ever is the lesser amount. As GD pointed out , it's difficult but not impossible to get a TPG to reverse the original assigned grade. A knowledge of how the top two TPG's ( NGC & PCGS ) differ in grading issues , case in point , Franklin Half Dollars and FBL"S is a worthwhile reading.