To What Extent Does PCGS Guarantee The Authenticity Of The Coins They Place Into Plastic.
Tibor
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My question relates to Chinese coins of all eras. For that matter, foreign coins
of all eras. Ancient, Byzantine, Middle Ages and on forward. What is their authenticity
guarantee? Thank you in advance.
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If they grade and encapsulate it it is guaranteed genuine.
If there is any doubt, they will not grade it.
That is not true for ancient coins. They do not guarantee they are genuine. In fact, you have less of a guarantee than raw coins, since many auction houses will not guarantee slabbed coins are genuine, so you have no guarantee at all. At least with raw coins the auction house will guarantee them.
So if you are happy that your coin has been looked at for thirty seconds by someone who says they can't guarantee it is genuine and then locked in a slab that means no-one else can see if it's genuine, fill your boots.
PCGS does not grade ancient coins.
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Indeed. Only NGC. It's even more true that you can't get a guarantee on an ancient coin from a TPG.
From the PCGS Asia website: https://www.pcgsasia.com/guarantee?l=en
Unless I'm reading their pop report for Chinese coins wrong, I do not believe they will grade and slab any Chinese cast coins, only machine-struck coins. I type "PCGS cash" into Google Images and I don't see a single example of a slabbed cast cash coin, only machine-struck cash. They certainly won't do ancient or mediaeval Chinese coins, just like they won't do ancient or mediaeval coins from anywhere else.
If they refuse to grade them, they don't need to guarantee them.
NGC will grade and slab cast cash, as well as mediaeval and ancient. But their authenticity guarantee does not cover ancient and mediaeval coins, which presumably includes Chinese coins; I do not know what their cutoff is between "mediaeval" and "modern" for Chinese coins.
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Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD.
NGC does not certify cast cash, and their guarantee does cover medieval coins.
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This is interesting, given their reasons for not guaranteeing ancients:
"Unlike modern coins, which often benefit from well-documented, scientific parameters for the verification of authenticity, there rarely is conclusive data for ancient coins, and generally there is no surviving documentation to verify production characteristics.
Almost without exception, ancient coins have been recovered from burial, either under land or water. Some recoveries date back centuries, while others are more recent. Even in ancient times, coins were counterfeited, copied and imitated.
The dating and attribution of an ancient coin is oftentimes uncertain or is a matter of scholarly conjecture. Multiple and different attributions can coexist. New research or archeological evidence may challenge or change the consensus about an ancient coin’s attribution, date, identification and even its authenticity. Consequently, the opinion of NGC Ancients on these matters is subject to change with the introduction of new information, or of existing information of which its grading staff was unaware at the time of holdering. Every effort will be made in good faith by NGC Ancients to properly attribute ancient coins, but no guarantee is made as to these qualities."
But they will guarantee a Saxon coin - a more murky, undocumented, undated, unattributable, counterfeited and debated coin dug out of the earth would be hard to find.
It’s just a matter of risk tolerance.
Yes, but why is it different? Just a matter of volume? But then, you'd get more in fees.
This is a very good discussion. I agree with Vasanti it is up to buyer’s risk tolerance. Also in regard to grading companies, their opinion can be changed over times become new graders come on board or new evidences. some buyers might also bet on that possibility to buy rare raw coins. It might also depends on the submitter too. I have heard over times that well connected dealers always can get their coins graded. However, graded coin price can be a lot higher than the RAW coin, this is especially true with rare coin. Below coins were just sold on SB Hing Kong auction. The first one is raw intentional made Mint Error (mule). Both PCGS and NGC did not want to grade it but SB believe it is genuine. It was sold on 1991 Goodman auction for $2200 (estimated 1200) (it might not be the exact coin, photo 3). The second coin also intentional made Mint Error sold for 540K because of PCGS graded. The same raw coin sold for $5060 in 1991 Goodman auction (estimated 1000, last photo, again it might not be the exact coin but it could be). So based on this, one can assume that if the first one can be graded by PCGS it should be 150K - 200K coin based on what it was sold in 1991.
The volume is the issue, I would bet. There isn’t a lot of Anglo Saxon coinage submitted to either grading company. They can have an expert or two who really knows their stuff and can spot suspicious examples. Ancients is an enormous body of material covering 1500 years and countless issuing entities. The cost of having to have the expertise necessary to guarantee authenticity would outweigh the risk.