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 Replies: 19 / Views: 4,130 |
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Forum Dad
 United States
24161 Posts |
 PCGS Service Announcement - New "Genuine" ServiceEffective immediately, the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) will begin authenticating and encapsulating "problem" coins (i.e. altered surface, cleaned, environmental damage, etc.). Holders and inserts for the Genuine service will be identical to the normal PCGS holder except that the insert will read "GENUINE" in place of the usual grade. No grade will be assigned to these coins, but they will be eligible for inclusion in the PCGS Set Registry with a grade value of 1. Genuine service coins will be covered under the PCGS Guarantee of Authenticity but not under the PCGS Guaranty of Grade. PCGS reserves the right to reject any coins submitted under the Guarantee Service, including coins that are excessively damaged, altered to such a degree that making a determination of authenticity is difficult or impossible, or which have surface contaminants that may harm the coin in the future. In such cases, PCGS will refund the fee and related shipping charges for that coin. Customers should submit all coins for the Genuine Service on a regular PCGS submission form, marking "GENUINE SERVICE" in the "Other" box. The fee for the Genuine service is $100 per coin. Turnaround times for the Genuine Service will be approximately the same for all other PCGS services. The Genuine Service is a stand-alone service and is not available in combination with any other service levels. "No-grades" from other service levels must be resubmitted under the Genuine Service in order to be encapsulated. All Recent News
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2602 Posts |
Wow, $100 fee is huge. I guess I won't be sending any of mine in anytime soon...
You know what the coin industry needs? We need top notch grading companies that don't gouge the customers with ridiculous grading fees, rapid turnaround times, accurate grading, and ability to accept problem coins (no body bags). ANACS comes close but still their fees are too high to warrant sending in anything with a book value under $100.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1130 Posts |
Why does it cost more to just authenticate than to grade AND authenticate ?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5318 Posts |
 I suppose coins that are altered or damaged would only be worth that fee if they are rare. So this isn't really extending services to most coins that would previously get bodybagged. PCGS has effectively created another "product segment" for high-end (but slightly damaged) coins. So I'll guess that $100 fee is to prevent a flood of common coins they don't want to put in their slabs. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1703 Posts |
Kurt, I think your exactly right.$100 keeps the rifraf out.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6385 Posts |
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!
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Valued Member
United States
499 Posts |
does this mean that those people that are trying to get the lowest graded registry set, with grades of PO1 can now just scratch up a coin, pay $100 and ace the lowest registry possible?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2254 Posts |
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.....  |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10982 Posts |
This service must be for problem rarities only. For $100 I can't see too many other takers.
Maybe they'll lower the price in the future to get more "average" collectibles?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2443 Posts |
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.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1283 Posts |
Kudos to PCGS for being willing to refund fees, but $100 for less work? I guess they at least want to limit the number of "problem" coins on the market, and limit them to high dollar value numismatics. I'm also wondering why someone would send it to them when they could have ANACS or NCS authenticate (and) grade the coin.
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Valued Member
United States
206 Posts |
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
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1283 Posts |
Quote:
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* Ha! I hadn't thought about that. Why would someone counterfeit a "problem" coin? Declining to give a grade determination kind of defeats the whole purpose, doesn't it. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6385 Posts |
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! |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Quote:
Why would someone counterfeit a "problem" coin? Declining to give a grade determination kind of defeats the whole purpose, doesn't it. Problem coins are frequently counterfeited because high grade problem free coins would be easier to identify as fakes. Flaws in the counterfeit can be hidden by the "problems". Sure they could get a lot more for a problem free coin, but they would be a lot more likely to be able to pass the problem coin. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1247 Posts |
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? |
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Replies: 19 / Views: 4,130 |
Posted 06/05/2008 12:09 pm
