Just noticed this on the bottom of my pcgs slab!

Coin Finder

When did this start?

LanceNewmanOCC

i don't recall but i do recall some threads on this in the past, if no one posts the answer, it may lie in one of those.

2windy2fish

How about a pic of the slab?

OAKSTAR

I just checked mine. They have a code as well. It's different from yours. No idea what it means or what it refers to.

Mr_Spud

I started a thread about them a while back once I found them by accident playing with a UV light. I believe the group consensus was that they are just the lot numbers of the empty plastic slabs

OAKSTAR

@Mr_Spud said:
I started a thread about them a while back once I found them by accident playing with a UV light. I believe the group consensus was that they are just the lot numbers of the empty plastic slabs

Why should there be a consensus? This is PCGS's board, can't someone from PCGS tell us what it means?

Mr_Spud

We didn’t ask them, but that’s a good idea

OAKSTAR

@Mr_Spud said:
We didn’t ask them, but that’s a good idea

I haven't been here that long. Don't PCGS employees or customer service personal monitor this board?

silverbul

Too hard to google, i guess.

Mr_Spud

There’s some moderators and a couple of PCGS photographers that frequent these forums. But they didn’t say anything when I made the thread last time, but maybe we should ask them this time if none of them respond

OAKSTAR

Maybe they only answer questions over here.

OAKSTAR

@silverbul said:
Too hard to google, i guess.

Why should you google a question about PCGS when they created this forum to answer questions?

LanceNewmanOCC

@OAKSTAR said:
Why should there be a consensus? This is PCGS's board, can't someone from PCGS tell us what it means?

.
i can say this more confidently than ever being on discord. it is really not in their interest to answer the same questions that get asked over and over and over when the answers reside in the archives and plenty of active members know the answers to the majority of inquiries off the top of their head. fwiw

that said, if one or two mods were active and answered/replied, they would probably be overwhelmed and overrun with negativity/complaints. a common occurrence among discords/tweeters/facebookies/forums etc. truly i wish that wasn't the case and also in the era of c19, short staffing is worse as i can ever remember and this includes "apparently" finding quality people. (not just with pcgs)

it is kinda funny/sad with crypto/nft, all those coders that created a lot of stuff (some of it good, most of it just dog crap because just because it works, doesn't mean it works well/effective) seemed really good cause all the new money coming in but NOW that things are tight, all those shortcomings (coders don't automatically make a HR dept, Sales force, analyst etc) and with things being tight, not having those critical areas covered is really magnifying the issues and making it harder to recover. (from my observations/opinion) it is pitiful too that it seems so many think they can just recreate the wheel while discounting hundreds of years of refined commerce and slowly, all the refined methods keep creeping in to the "defi" and probably and inevitably? government intervention. i only mention this as a note to short staffing and having the right people for the job, if the job is available/exists.

ok, tired, rambling....

yosclimber

Some past threads:
2015: https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/951522/im-digging-the-new-pcgs-slabs (no photos)
2018: https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1009420/interesting-alpha-code-on-slab-edge (many photos)

OAKSTAR

That's all fine Lance. This code, serial number, stamp thing isn't that critical to me anyway. I really don't care what it stands for or what it means. It's just questions to PCGS in general.

If what you say is true, they should probably just take this out.

Coin Finder

Do counterfeit slabs have these codes?

gumby1234

Maybe its an anticounterfeiting measure

jessewvu

Maybe companies that are trying to deploy inconspicuous security measures would like to keep them inconspicuous.

PerryHall

@jessewvu said:
Maybe companies that are trying to deploy inconspicuous security measures would like to keep them inconspicuous.

Do you really consider a serial number across the base of a slab to be inconspicuous?

DelawareDoons

Almost certainly an anti-counterfeiting measure. They came around with the NFC tags so my best guess is they're related to that.

ricko

Some have it, some do not.... I just do not care. Show me the coin - Cheers, RickO

OAKSTAR

Not that it matters but I checked my other slabs....ANACS, ICG & PCGS. I don't see anything similar on those.

MetroD

@Mr_Spud said:
We didn’t ask them, but that’s a good idea

I called PCGS this AM, and inquired.

The rep I spoke with said that:
~ PCGS purchases their empty slabs externally;
~ PCGS does not ask their source(s) to add a code;
~ the empty slabs arrive from the supplier with the code;
~ the code has no relevance with respect to the encapsulated coin.

OAKSTAR

@MetroD said:

@Mr_Spud said:
We didn’t ask them, but that’s a good idea

I called PCGS this AM, and inquired.

The rep I spoke with said that:
~ PCGS purchases their empty slabs externally;
~ PCGS does not ask their source(s) to add a code;
~ the empty slabs arrive from the supplier with the code;
~ the code has no relevance with respect to the encapsulated coin.

Interesting, thanks for that!.. Now I'm wondering (not that it makes any difference), where the other TPG'ers get their slabs.

BuffaloIronTail

@thebigeng said:
Do counterfeit slabs have these codes?

Now that's a very good question..........................

Pete