PCGS NFC Technology in Action

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As of Monday, February 24th all PCGS Gold Shield® submissions are receiving a Near Field Communication (NFC) chip technology-embedded slab at no additional charge. We had some of the security chip-embedded holders with us at the Long Beach Expo and shot this brief video showing the anti-counterfeiting technology in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aicwDQIb1A

As you can see, PCGS slabs embedded with NFC technology allow any collector, with a modern smartphone (Android and iPhone XS or newer), to easily verify that the coin encapsulated within was indeed certified, graded, and slabbed by PCGS. “The NFC chip contains a uniform resource locator (URL) that generates a unique, cryptographic one-time password (OTP) that changes every time the chip is tapped. This password is validated by the HID Trusted Tag® Cloud Authentication service to prove that it is the exact same tag that was issued with the slab.”

Those with NFC-enabled smartphones need only to put those devices close to the chip. This will automatically launch the PCGS Cert Verification app displaying information about the coin, verification that it is housed in an NFC enabled Gold Shield Holder, and a TrueView image.

Those with older phones can use the free PCGS Cert Verification App which now includes an NFC Scanner.

This technology works best alongside our free app which can be downloaded here: https://www.pcgs.com/apps

Coins that feature an NFC chip can be identified by our new NFC symbol on the back of the holder

Or on the Cert Verification page on the "Security" Line:

Learn more here: https://www.pcgs.com/news/security-chip-slabs

bearcave

That is great!! 🙂

ms70

Purdy neat!

Kliao

Neat! How will I be able to identify which slabs have the chip?

Kkathyl

Nice

HeatherBoyd

@Kliao said:
Neat! How will I be able to identify which slabs have the chip?

Coins that feature an NFC chip can be identified by our new NFC symbol on the back of the holder

Or on the Cert Verification page on the "Security" Line:

ms70

One of my Gold Shield coins updated for shipping today, but the cert verification doesn't show that. I guess I just missed it.

ChrisH821

Excellent! I sent off a gold shield submission the other day.

ricko

That is an outstanding upgrade to PCGS slabs and will certainly contribute to the efforts against fraud. Thank you PCGS....Cheers, RickO

Zoins

@HeatherBoyd said:

@Kliao said:
Neat! How will I be able to identify which slabs have the chip?

Coins that feature an NFC chip can be identified by our new NFC symbol on the back of the holder

It would be great to have that logo on the TrueView too

StrikeOutXXX

Maybe I missed the answer in the announcement thread, but...

1) NFC Chips (1st ISO) supposedly have a range of up to 10cm (4 inches) depending on the size of the tag antennae - has this been tested with a coin laying in an Allstate type case tapping the phone on the case glass? Just wondering if it would get close enough to read it.

2) CoinWorld announced their own SmartTrack DNA NFC Chip program right about the same time PCGS announced theirs. Their chips are external/stickers - if CoinWorld tags a slab with the PCGS chip in it, will they interfere with each other or cause problems?

illini420

@StrikeOutXXX said:
Maybe I missed the answer in the announcement thread, but...

1) NFC Chips (1st ISO) supposedly have a range of up to 10cm (4 inches) depending on the size of the tag antennae - has this been tested with a coin laying in an Allstate type case tapping the phone on the case glass? Just wondering if it would get close enough to read it.

I tried it with my phone and doesn't work through the showcase. Slab didn't trigger my phone until almost touching, maybe an inch away tops.

CoinJunkie

@illini420 said:

@StrikeOutXXX said:
Maybe I missed the answer in the announcement thread, but...

1) NFC Chips (1st ISO) supposedly have a range of up to 10cm (4 inches) depending on the size of the tag antennae - has this been tested with a coin laying in an Allstate type case tapping the phone on the case glass? Just wondering if it would get close enough to read it.

I tried it with my phone and doesn't work through the showcase. Slab didn't trigger my phone until almost touching, maybe an inch away tops.

That might be considered a feature in the case where many NFC-equipped slabs are in close proximity in a case. In practice, I probably won't care about verifying a coin's authenticity until I've looked it over carefully outside of the dealer's case. YMMV.

illini420

@CoinJunkie said:

@illini420 said:

@StrikeOutXXX said:
Maybe I missed the answer in the announcement thread, but...

1) NFC Chips (1st ISO) supposedly have a range of up to 10cm (4 inches) depending on the size of the tag antennae - has this been tested with a coin laying in an Allstate type case tapping the phone on the case glass? Just wondering if it would get close enough to read it.

I tried it with my phone and doesn't work through the showcase. Slab didn't trigger my phone until almost touching, maybe an inch away tops.

That might be considered a feature in the case where many NFC-equipped slabs are in close proximity in a case. In practice, I probably won't care about verifying a coin's authenticity until I've looked it over carefully outside of the dealer's case. YMMV.

I think that's probably true... but I do see several collectors at shows who seem to like to scan slabs through cases using the bar code readers. Lots of collectors out there that may be too shy or just don't want to bug dealers... and lots of dealers just don't seem to be at their tables all the time at the big shows.

But yeah, being really close to the slab for this makes sense... I know sometimes I stack a few coins that are similar... would be weird of the scan tried to pick them all up at once!

CoinJunkie

@illini420 said:

@CoinJunkie said:

@illini420 said:

@StrikeOutXXX said:
Maybe I missed the answer in the announcement thread, but...

1) NFC Chips (1st ISO) supposedly have a range of up to 10cm (4 inches) depending on the size of the tag antennae - has this been tested with a coin laying in an Allstate type case tapping the phone on the case glass? Just wondering if it would get close enough to read it.

I tried it with my phone and doesn't work through the showcase. Slab didn't trigger my phone until almost touching, maybe an inch away tops.

That might be considered a feature in the case where many NFC-equipped slabs are in close proximity in a case. In practice, I probably won't care about verifying a coin's authenticity until I've looked it over carefully outside of the dealer's case. YMMV.

I think that's probably true... but I do see several collectors at shows who seem to like to scan slabs through cases using the bar code readers. Lots of collectors out there that may be too shy or just don't want to bug dealers... and lots of dealers just don't seem to be at their tables all the time at the big shows.

But yeah, being really close to the slab for this makes sense... I know sometimes I stack a few coins that are similar... would be weird of the scan tried to pick them all up at once!

The good news is that optical scanning is still an option, even when the slab has an NFC chip. AFAIK, anyway.