Is CCCS Is A Trusted And Good Grader For Canadian Coins?

There are no top-level, completely respected Canadian coin grading companies using modern encapsulation methods.

ICCS is second tier, employing primitive flips and hand-typed inserts that are 30 years out of date, not to mention a steady stream of inconsistent grades. How this company survives is beyond me.

CCCS is third tier, if you can imagine that.

CCCS is a terrible excuse for a grading company..from my understanding they have a record of acting shady in general, lying and just bad business. Every submission I have been involved with has been a disaster. If you recall there was a thread on here of a 2017 plain toonie discovered in 2016..it was sent to CCCS to be certified as being discovered in 2016..he held onto it and pretty much bulled the owner until it was 2017 and he then finally certified it and sent it back..the coin was at CCCS for a few months!

Another story is a fellow member who I am close with cut out old ICCS certed steel war 5 cent coins in MS64 to MS65, and sent them to CCCS for no chrome attributions and to see what they would grade..and CCCS butchered the grades! Calling them MS62s and MS63s if memory serves right.

At the RCNA we got a rare peovincial coin, we asked the guy there who owns CCCS what he would grade it, once we said we were considering sending it for express grading, he said it would straight grade in his holder at MS63RB so we left it with him..this was a lie, he just wanted to get the extra cash for the express cert...and then he didn't even do it express, he lied to us about mailing the coin out to us for about a week or two, then it came back AU55 instead of the MS63 he suggested. I could go on and on...

thedollarman, I like you... and I really don't want to see you get involved with any sort of defamation mess, because what you have written could be interpreted as libel (unless you have unequivocal proof). CCCS is a member here, and they can read these posts just like everyone else.

We are free to express our opinions, and at the same time, when it comes to grading, it is highly subjective, so just be careful how you express your opinion.

I know CCCS has made some bad mistakes in certification, but I have examples where ICCS, PCGS and NGC also have made bad mistakes - to err is human. In Canada, we really only have limited options. That is because our coin market is so small.

My best coins are in PCGS holders. My reasons are simple:

1. PCGS has a guarantee to put their money where their mouth is - so if they screw up, they will fix it and even compensate you or buy the coin, if you can demonstrate a financial loss due to their error (e.g., buying a counterfeit coin in one of their holders).

2. Modern, up to date web sites, with population reports, certification lookup and registry sets.

3. The use of apps for my iPad and iPhone - you have no idea how awesome those tools are at coin shows, when shopping for upgrades.

4. A minimum of two graders for every coin, with a third grader if the two grades are inconsistent. This is important, because even the best graders can have bad days or suffer from fatigue.

Again - these are my opinions. At the end of the day, I have seen enough coins in the series I collect, that I trust my own eyes first (frankly, I have probably seen more nickel dollars than CCCS and ICCS combined). My grading style has adapted to PCGS style (devices take precedence over fields), so I only send coins for grading that I deem worthy of it.

I submit my coins to PCGS through a PCGS authorized dealer. It is considerably more expensive than ICCS and CCCS soft flip bulk rates... (about $25 per coin, all in with shipping, insurance and exchange rate).

I'm pretty we've discussed this in the past, but if no recent efforts have been made recently even since Brett took over at the start of the year they have been much more receptive to at least considering ideas from the public. Between Brett and Heather I've seen numerous times where they have responded directly to collector ideas and suggestions which never used to happen a couple years ago.

Now seems like a good time to reach out to them again to at least try and get them to have a table for submissions at a major show. A dedicated submission center may not be practical but getting them to come to a show or two a year where submissions could be dropped off seems like something they may be interested in at least testing out

Could be helpful too if you could get some sort of dealer petition going to show them the interest is there.

that what I was thinking...PCGS is expensive as you need to convert USD etc etc

Yes, I know the math does not make sense, but I do submit coins in bulk... and a lot are "modern" coins (1965 and newer) - remember I search ten of thousands of dollars annually in nickel 50c and nickel dollars... I have type set and registry set collectors and clients who snap up almost every 50c I submit... the top coins in the post-1967 PCGS population report are almost all ones I submitted.

Error coins are the toughest pill to swallow.... almost $95 per coin, all in.