Numismatic Certification Institute, Anybody Heard Of Them?

looks like it was one of the competitors of ANACS back in the day but I wasn't collecting back then so I am not 100% positive but the date of the authentication is 1988 so that would be about the same time ANACS were doing the same type of certifications

NCI was started in the mid-1980's by Heritage. Their packaging was so similar to ANACS' that their early labels contained a "Not affiliated with ANACS" disclaimer. NCI was considered to be an overgrader in their day, and to lack objectivity. The FTC thought so, also:

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/predawn/F89/hert.txt

With that all said, I think I'd watch that particular auction very carefully for potential sniping.

Sniping is the practice of watching an auction carefully, and placing one's best bid with bare seconds left to go. One should never bid more than the highest amount one is willing to pay, but it seems counterintuitive to make that bid with enough time for someone else to raise their bid above yours. Remember, another bidder, seeing your highest bid exceeds his, will likely assume you know something he doesn't, and raise his bid until he beats yours.

In this particular case, I think the coin in question is a strong MS64, and if I were in the market I'd be waiting for the auction's end to see if I might snag the coin at a good price.

Although considered overgraders and hardly objective, being sprung from Heritage, one of NCI's principals was James Halperin. He is a man I would never consider capable of assigning an MS64 grade to an AU coin.

For that reason, I'd consider this a coin worth looking into. Another reason is the die clashing I see - there are two transferred-letter VAM's for that date, and the possibility exists that this might be such a coin. They're going for $200 in MS64 at Heritage (including the juice), and I could see going that high for this coin, or $200 minus the cost of slabbing it if you're so inclined.

Anyone familiar with Hallmark Grading? I read on a website they were out of business but I have seen several of their coins on ebay. Strangely, the selling bids seem way too low for the supposed grade. Did they have a bad rep as a grading company?

<< I sent the seller an email and they said the biggest downfall was that they didn't slab their coins. >>

There are nine different varieties of NCI certificates and NCI DID start slabbing the coin as well as issuing certificates somewhere around the sixth generation of certificate. NCI was in operation from Dec 1984, (Most references, including the NCI grading guide written by Halprin, say 1985. Some even say 1986. But I have a first generation certificate dated Dec 1984.) to some time in early 1991.

<< Anyone familiar with Hallmark Grading? I read on a website they were out of business but I have seen several of their coins on ebay. >>

There have been three different Hallmark grading services.

The first was strictly a currency grading service that was active in the late 1970's to early 1980's. Almost no one knows about this service. I have only seen one holder but do not own one or have pictures of it.

The second one was a coin grading service owned by Q David Bowers and another partner who name I do not have at my fingertips. It was active from around 1987 til 1991. It is the firm that most people are thinking of when they mention Hallmark grading. It was a well respected company with a distinctive style holder. After they closed down their equipment and supplies were purchased by a dealer who then resold them to PCI. In 1991 PCI began using the Hallmark style slabs that we see them in today.

The third Hallmark is a recent fly-by-night company using Coin-Safe holders and sealing them top and bottom with gold labels in the same fashion as SGS.