Surprising (to me at least) results of a GC search this morning.

ms71

I was a bit surprised by a perusal of listings on Great Collections this morning. I looked at Liberty gold $2½, $5, and $10 coins. For the $2½ there were (64) listed, of which (5) had CAC stickers or were CACG. For the $5 it was (63) listed and (4) stickered or CACG. For the $10 it was (95) listed and (7) stickered or CACG. Anybody else find this unexpected?

DisneyFan

Not surprising. Take for example, there are 79,041 $2.5 Liberty gold currently graded by PCGS and 8,388 at CAC. And coins with CACs tend to be in stronger hands.

Coinbert

Like winesteven, at Great Collections I put in the coin type that I am searching for and then filter in CAC. The number of coins available is always significantly less with CAC approval. Try this with bust or seated dollars and often no coins are available. At Heritage it is possible to only view CAC coins for the entire auction. Is this possible at Great Collections Steve?

alaura22

Not Steve but yes
Just go to the search window at the top and plug in PCGS CAC Or NGC CAC and it will show you all the coins with a CAC
Edited at add:
OR just plug in CAC and all will show up,

FrankH

It's just the Destruction of Hobby via new grading taking effect.

Get used to it.

Coinbert

Thank you alaura22.

jmlanzaf

@FrankH said:
It's just the Destruction of Hobby via new grading taking effect.

Get used to it.

Lmfao

winesteven

More to the point, as @DisneyFan describes, but it seems there’s a REASON gold coins tend to have a lower percentage of their graded coins with CAC stickers compared to copper, nickel, or silver: I’ve heard on this forum over the years from presumably knowledgeable people that with gold coins, certain “treatments” have often been applied to enhance its eye appeal, and while those surface treatments are usually acceptable to the TPG’s, they are not acceptable to CAC. Apparently those types of treatments are not successfully used on coins of the other metals.

Maybe it’s an old wives tale, as I know no other details of this to be able to answer questions. Admittedly, I’ve periodically posted this information when the topic comes up, as I’m doing now, since I believe those smart people who in the past provided this information, as an explanation for the general fact that graded gold coins do indeed have a noticeably lower percentage of CAC success than coins of the other metals. Perhaps @DeplorableDan may be able to chime in due to his knowledge of gold coins?

Separately, CAC has NO issue with use of “dip” as a surface treatment on silver coins, as long as in their opinion it’s done quickly and gently.

Steve

TwoSides2aCoin

With prices at record highs, the only thing surprising is how few gold coins are actually available . Sticker or not , there it goes. 250? Interesting.

DisneyFan

@winesteven said:
More to the point, as @DisneyFan describes, but it seems there’s a REASON gold coins tend to have a lower percentage of their graded coins with CAC stickers compared to copper, nickel, or silver: I’ve heard on this forum over the years from presumably knowledgeable people that with gold coins, certain “treatments” have often been applied to enhance its eye appeal, and while those surface treatments are usually acceptable to the TPG’s, they are not acceptable to CAC. Apparently those types of treatments are not successfully used on coins of the other metals.

Maybe it’s an old wives tale, as I know no other details of this to be able to answer questions. Admittedly, I’ve periodically posted this information when the topic comes up, as I’m doing now, since I believe those smart people who in the past provided this information, as an explanation for the general fact that graded gold coins do indeed have a noticeably lower percentage of CAC success than coins of the other metals. Perhaps @DeplorableDan may be able to chime in due to his knowledge of gold coins?

Separately, CAC has NO issue with use of “dip” as a surface treatment on silver coins, as long as in their opinion it’s done quickly and gently.

Steve

My understanding is any PVC presence on a gold coin cannot damage it. Thus, is it possible there is less incentive to obtain CACs for common date gold coins as the price guide values for these gold coins with or without CACs are similar?

winesteven

@DisneyFan said:

@winesteven said:
More to the point, as @DisneyFan describes, but it seems there’s a REASON gold coins tend to have a lower percentage of their graded coins with CAC stickers compared to copper, nickel, or silver: I’ve heard on this forum over the years from presumably knowledgeable people that with gold coins, certain “treatments” have often been applied to enhance its eye appeal, and while those surface treatments are usually acceptable to the TPG’s, they are not acceptable to CAC. Apparently those types of treatments are not successfully used on coins of the other metals.

Maybe it’s an old wives tale, as I know no other details of this to be able to answer questions. Admittedly, I’ve periodically posted this information when the topic comes up, as I’m doing now, since I believe those smart people who in the past provided this information, as an explanation for the general fact that graded gold coins do indeed have a noticeably lower percentage of CAC success than coins of the other metals. Perhaps @DeplorableDan may be able to chime in due to his knowledge of gold coins?

Separately, CAC has NO issue with use of “dip” as a surface treatment on silver coins, as long as in their opinion it’s done quickly and gently.

Steve

My understanding is any PVC presence on a gold coin cannot damage it. Thus, is it possible there is less incentive to obtain CACs for common date gold coins as the price guide values for these gold coins with or without CACs are similar?

While that may be true, I don't buy that as the main reason for a low percentage of graded gold coins with CAC stickers. My disagreement is based on also looking at gold coins in grades where there IS a substantial differential between those gold coins that merit a CAC sticker sticker and those that don't, and we regularly see those too have a low percentage of success (which is likely the main reason for that pricing differential).

Steve