Hey Fred !!!

Hey Rick! I'm still out here buddy! Here's what I turned up....


Numismatic Certification Institute (NCI)

The second of the three major services is the Numismatic Certification Institute (NCI), an affiliate of Heritage Capital Corporation. Founded in 1984, NCI espouses the grading philosophy of Jim Halperin, set forth in The NCI Grading Guide. It can be characterized as more commercial than that of ANACS, incorporating all factors which the market considers when trading coins, including strike, luster, surface preservation (bagmarks and hairlines) and overall eye appeal (toning). On balance, grades assigned by NCI is usually at the high end of the range of reasonably likely grades.

NCI is regarded as a very consistent service; two professional coin appraisers grade every coin. Yet, the prices for NCI certified coins reported in the Certified Coin Dealer Newsletter generally run less (sometimes substantially less) than prices for the two other certification services. This is attributable to several factors. First, is the "high end of the range" grading mentioned earlier, which places many NCI coins on the liberal side when viewed by some other dealers. In the 1879 dollar example referred to above, over three-quarters of the dealers examining the coin would have graded it only MS-63 or MS-64, rather than MS-65. Second, is the nature of the prices reported by the Certified Coin Dealer Newsletter They are intended to be "sight-unseen" bids, or the price of a "low-end" example for a given grade.

The actual trading range for NCI coins is quite wide, and given the opportunity to examine the coins prior to purchase, many dealers will pay prices well in excess of those listed on the Certified Coin Dealer Newsletter. Occasionally, NCI coins may even bring prices commensurate with those of ANACS or PCGS. This is the exception rather than the rule, however, and collectors purchasing average quality NCI coins should usually expect to pay considerably less than they would for a similarly graded PCGS or recently graded ANACS coin.

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Originally posted by Metalman

Thanks Mike

I was wondering about those very things !!

I purchased one coin and have an option on 2 more for the same money..

The coin I purchased is an 1883-O and looks very good I will post pics in a bit.In the coin grading practice forum for opinions !!

I appreciate the info Mike.

Rick

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Rick, I went to the Grading Practice forum before I came here, so I saw the NCI 83-O before you asked about NCI here. I've not at all familiar with NCI and I don't recall seeing any of their slabs, but I dismiss any grading company unless its one of the top four. I did a Google on NCI and found a number of references, but the bottom lines seem to be that it's no longer grading coins and that it tended to overgrade coins when it was in business.