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 Replies: 13 / Views: 2,162 |
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Valued Member
United States
76 Posts |
How can a TPGS tell if a coin is a first strike?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
880 Posts |
I think that designation is assigned as a marketing ploy. It only means that the coin was shipped on the first day (I believe). I don't collect many proofs, but I do remember reading that somewhere. It also doesn't add a lot of value in my understanding. They are trying to make more money off of the same coins.
It's just like owning something with a serial number. Or in paper money, a lower barcode. Some people will find value in it, others wont.
Hope I'm right as it's very early in the morning. If not, someone else will chime in!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3592 Posts |
I'm with lukkyseven on this one and always have been....marketing ploy.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
2448 Posts |
PCGS requires the shipping packaging for date verification of certain designations. Although you are correct. it's just a marketing ploy. The last "first day of issue" ("FDOI") ASE I bought was graded by PCGS. I actually got it below melt and a lot below PCGS's assigned value. I think most could care less as to when it's minted; they just want the coin. Sometimes the coin is not graded and just put in the holder as a "FDOI". I will say that those holders fit nicely into my storage boxes. Though the NGC is as nice, it's a slightly larger holder that does not always fit in some boxes. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4989 Posts |
All that matters is grade and die variety not day of issue. PCGS / NGC should not be trying to create artificial "scarcity" where none actually exists. And they need to agree on what MS-70 means; NGC is much more liberal at handing those out than PCGS even though the ANA grading standards should be identical. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Quote:
How can a TPGS tell if a coin is a first strike? If it arrives at the service within the first thity days after the time the coin was first issued. When the coin was actually struck has absolutely nothing to do with it. It may have been struck yesterday, it may have been struck months ago. It may be one of the first coins from that die pair, or it may be the last coin from the pair just as long as they get it witin those thirty days. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2448 Posts |
OK, even if I send the shipping label showing it was shipped within that 30 day period from initial minting, how does that guarantee the coin what pressed from the first die set? I have been wrong before, but unless the mint certifies that it came from the first die set, the TPG designation "First Strike" is (IMHO) bogus. If the mint will provide this service, why don't they advertise? I've seen their first day of issue products when they are officially released at the ceremony. That still doesn't prove its from the first die set. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1027 Posts |
The mint almost never certifies any such thing. On the State Quarters, they did some of it (and they sold them as such) but they don't even track which coins come from which die pairs. Most people don't realize just how many die pairs are used in the production of special coins. The UHRDE from 2009 had around 30,000 coins ready on the day of release and all of those coins and mare were eligible for first or early designations from PCGS and NGC but just for those 30,000 coins, some 100 or more die pairs were used up. That means that in that first bunch there were hundreds or thousands of late die state coins and the same for early die state. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7629 Posts |
The shipping date is all the 'First Strike' and 'Early Releases' designations are about. The coins have to be shipped to the grading service within 30 days of their initial release. This whole subject has absolutely nothing to do with die state. How many die pairs were used and how old the dies became before being retired is a completely different subject from these holders. Part of this misunderstanding is the fault of the grading serive that uses the term 'first strike' very incorrectly...but part of it also rests on the collectors who assume there's any way at all of telling whether any coin really was the first struck - really? Come on..
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2448 Posts |
Thanks guys, that was my understanding.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
And here all the time I thought coins had something stamped on them saying FIRST STRIKE. Wouldn't last strike coins also be worth more? But then too they would have to have that stamped on them.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
509 Posts |
This marketing ploy seems to have been a successful one. I believe that the majority of experienced collectors understand this (I'm not one of them)but in my limited time spent in collecting coins I have noticed the coins marked as first strike seem to bring a higher premium. That's the bottom line for the dealers. That's what they're after $$$$. It worked.
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Valued Member
United States
206 Posts |
there has been a lawsuit against PCGS and NGC on this matter as first strike means the first coin stuck being only one coin. all others are in order 2nd 3rd...............NGC settled out of court I believe..PCGS has not.. Correct me if I am wrong... I do know of one first strike coin the LMC 1959 I went to prep school in the 60's with 2 grandsons of a senator. The conversation came around to coins, they said they had the first LMC It was given to the senator by President Eisenhower in a plaque of course.. I keep meaning to email them to give it to the ANA.... Edited by stephen
12/21/2010 12:34 am
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Yes NGC settled and changed the name of the things they slabbed from First Strike to Early Release. PCGS didn't settle but as far as I know the case never continued. I don't know if it got tossed or if the person who filed the suit dropped it.
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Replies: 13 / Views: 2,162 |
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Posted 12/10/2010 07:19 am
