How Do You Get PCGS To Recognise A Die Variety? World Coins

Ah. Found the PCGS List of Recognized Varieties they'll allow you to pay a US$24 premium to attribute. Bad news is, they're all American varieties. I can't see any mention of world varieties on the PCGS schedule of services, so I doubt they do any foreign varieties, nor have plans to expand into them anytime soon.

I already knew that they so far only do (some) US varieties. With slabbing taking off here in OZ maybe they will start to notice our coins a bit more. The scarce die pairs are the valuable coins that would provide them thousands of extra coins to slab (at $60 a pop)
Have to be a squeaky wheel/ burr under the saddle blanket to get them to notice the problem.
Krause absolutely sucks at non US coins. They don't just miss varieties they miss whole years, attribute coins to the wrong mints etc.
McDonalds and Renniks are not much better, so that really leaves no catalogue for PCGS to use as a reference book.

Their websites for world coins are a lot less definitive for what varieties they do and dont do. If check their population report it should show if theyve labeled any varieties for those.

Like mentioned though they generally do like to have a widely accepted reference book when doing those. But the bigger question would be does the variety have an impact on the value? If the values are the same theyre a lot less inclined to add them, but if there is a significant difference you would have a lot better chance of getting them to add it.

Its a lame answer but your best bet will be to call them and see if they do it and if not if there was someone you could talk to about it. If you know anyone else that wants it get them to do the same. The more people that ask for it the more likely they would be to do it.

Wondered when somebody was going to catch that.

I will tell you this much, nealeffendi - you're on the right side of history here. The TPG's have pretty much exhausted the ore upon which they built their empires, that being collectible American coinage. Classic US issues will always trickle in, but they're no longer the cash cow which they once were. Now, TPG's are surviving on Home Shopping Network sillyslabs with "Label of the Week" designations.

Don't sell that short - the shopping networks sell huge amounts of coins - but the public is fickle and if they turn their attention to the next iteration of Beanie Babies (and away from coins), the bottom will drop out. The TPG's know this. NGC has very quietly been ramping up their World issue presence, hiring graders and who knows what in the background.

They're coming your way, nealeffendi. You represent a vast untapped market for them, and once they decide you're profitable you will be shocked at how fast they'll be ready to exploit the market. I think your best bet is not to involve the TPG's in what you're doing, but to concentrate upon building a system perceived as reliable to your demographic - the collectors who wish to own the varieties. Do that, and the TPG's will come to you. And you can plan on the TPG Plan for World Dominance to begin in Australia, as you guys are very committed collectors who will spend the money once you perceive value in slabbing.

It'll come. The stopper is not necessarily the availability of information - scholars like nealeffendi abound across all genres of numismatics - but the collation of that information in one place, and more importantly the availability of people who concentrate knowledge in one place who are available to become graders/authenticators/attributors, is pretty problematic. That situation is greatly exacerbated with World/Ancient issues because of the sheer volume of information; it's possible to concentrate US coinage knowledge in just a few people, but World/Ancient coinage will need multiple, dedicated specialists. Germany alone (for instance) amounts to dozens of Mints and hundreds of years of history. Soemone specialized there would be useless for Chinese issues (plan on that subspecialty being a high priority).

Accommodating World and Ancient coinage is a task that dwarfs anything the TPG's have ever done. They'll do it, but between the difficulty in finding enough specialists (ANACS is the acknowledged go-to place among Morgan enthusiasts because of only one man) and the economic pressures caused by the exhaustion of the original raw material source, I don't see the current TPG structure surviving into the future. I'm certain that one or the other of NGC and PCGS will not exist ten years hence. There just isn't enough talent to go around. Successful attribution, although teachable, seems to involve inherent skills that not all people have.

My money is on NGC being the survivor.