PCGS Service Announcement - New "Genuine" Service

Halfway through the article I was thinking "wow, PCGS is actually going to improve their services!" but I changed my mind by the time I finished. If you send in a coin under any standard grading tier and they find a problem, you get a body bag. The new service gives you an opportunity to then send it back in with the $100 (plus shipping).

I see a big flaw with this new service. PCGS has stated that for standard grading they first examine submitted coins for cleaning. If they decide it has been cleaned, they immediately reject it and don't make any further examination. Therefore, it could still be a fake and you won't know it. That coin would be rejected a second time as a fake if you sent it back in for Genuine encapsulation. They do say that they would in that case refund your money, so that at least is a good thing.

If they really wanted to upgrade their customer service, they could fully examine submitted coins, identify any problems, and determine authenticity. Then, for problem coins that are authentic, they could contact the submitter, inform them that their coin was cleaned (or whatever) and offer the Genuine encapsulation service for the extra $100 plus return shipping. If you wanted the service, you would get it without any extra hassle or uncertainty. Now that would be an improvement!

So this is pretty much $100 to authenticate a coin. Nothing else. Hmmph. I don't get it I guess.

Ziggy, I think you may be correct in your assessment as well, but if someone wants to damage coins on purpose and spend $100 for each just to have the lowest graded registry set, they have more wrong with them than having too much money.....

I think PCGS did this inorder to compete with NGC's NCS service. The only thing is they still wanted to keep their image and prestige so they made the price high enough that on the extremely rare coins get slabbed. This way, they don't "cheapen" their image. I doubt they'll make it affordable to the average collector.

I'm glad PCGS is there to let me know a problem coin is real and not fake. lord knows I have been burned buying messed up fakes.. *rolls eyes*

-Steve

Trooper,
You might be surprised. Years ago Coin World reported on a very interesting fake coin incident. Someone got a Gallery Mint reproduction of a 1796 half dollar, which is of course a great rarity if genuine. They tooled away the "COPY" imprint that all Gallery Mint reproductions carry. Then they artificially wore the coin down to maybe the G-04 level, possibly by putting it in a rock tumbler loaded with sand. They also managed to apply some artificial but deceptive old-time-looking toning. At that point the coin looked like a beat-up, cleaned, and heavily worn example of a key date. The forger submitted the coin to SEGS for grading, probably figuring that this "second tier" grading service might fail to identify the coin as a fake.

Well, SEGS did identify it as a fake and also determined it was from the Gallery Mint. The submitter claimed it had been part of his grandfather's collection and had been put away for many years. Right.

So, some people do attempt to create "problem" forgeries. You have to wonder whether other attempts were more successful and some fake rare coins now sit in TPG holders. Beware!

They will only authenticate them. They won't net grade them because:

"Some people value damage differently"
"We'll let the market decide." --Ron Guth CoinWorld 6/23/08

I agree with Guth on that. But why doesn't that logic apply to all subjective factors with coins and collectors? Why do we have 11 Uncirculated Frankengrades? Why not just Uncirculated and let the market decide what it likes or doesn't like?

TPGs provide a very useful service with authentication. That is where I draw the line and it's where they should have always stayed. ANACS when it was part of the ANA had alot of respect when they just authenticated coins. In fact, they still do 30 years later when it comes to authentication.

But I have and always have had and most likely always will have issues with market grading. Such as where's the market? The opinions of a dozen or so top tier TPG graders are not the market. The *real* market will prevail and it doesn't give a rat's behind what on anyone's holder.

I have issues with the very word market being used in grading. It gives legitimacy to what is really nothing more than whimsy, greed, or gullibility in coin collectors.

Then there are re-submissions. Why for? If graders are really in sync with the market, if their grading ability is really as good as they claim, if collectors didn't change their minds on what they like and don't like more often than they change their under ware then there shouldn't even be a procedure for resubmissions.

No thank you. I will send my coins to NCS and save $60. I am with the author. $100 is absurd! Like I have said before, I generally use the TPG's for the holder (long term storage and encapsulation) and I think NCS's holder is just fine for problem coins.