PCGS Changes Guidelines

Did you see the PCGS announcement today (Apr 1)? They are going to change coin terminology in order to be more accommodating to new collectors.

"Cent" will be deemphasized in favor of the term "penny."

Instead of coins being struck, they will be said to be printed.

All 1964-dated coins will be reclassified as coming from a Special Mint Set.

Instead of planchet, the term planchette will be favored if the coin includes the depiction of a woman. "Susan B Anthony was printed on a planchette."

Damaged coins will now be said to instead exhibit post printing enhancement.

Coins that seem to have various shapes and/or letters in their fields will be said to be unique varieties. So, a cent found on the ground in a parking lot might be described as "Unique variety penny with post printing enhancement known as inverted Elvis!"

Dates that are mangled on a coin will be included within whatever year that enhancement most closely resembles, thereby extending the period of that coin series. "Look, I found a Roosevelt quarter printed in 1092!"

All coins that have the letters F and S anywhere on them will be considered to have full steps.

All coins that previously were considered stained will now be said to be missing a layer. "My reddish nickel must be missing its silver clad layer!" will now be a valid statement.

The criteria by which a 1982 cent will be judged to be a large date or small date will change periodically just to keep newbies on their toes.

The US Mint has agreed to cooperate, and will install at each mint a set of drills, hammers, vises, dremel tools, dryers, glue, acid, and the like that mint employees will use upon some of every batch of freshly printed coins. Additionally, some new coins will be dumped into the mint's parking lot, then scooped back up after a few weeks and put into circulation. This is so newbies will be able to say, "My coin came from the mint this way!" and be correct.

All coins previously graded by PCGS can now be resubmitted for grading and new variety attribution. For a small fee, every new label can include the text "Rare! Valuable! As seen on Etsy!" Extra exclamation points are available at additional charge.

Other PCGS changes will be announced later in the day.