State Quarters NOT In The Population Report

eye

Does anyone have any idea what percentage of State Quarters are sent to PCGS for grading by dealers with the provision not to grade them unless they make a certain level such as MS68 or higher? I have heard that you can send in a certain number of coins of the same type and mint mark at one time with the above proviso and PCGS will charge you a nominal fee of $5 per coin for "unofficially grading" the ones that do not meet your request. The "ungraded" coins are sent back to you along with the encapsulated graded ones. Does anyone have information on this? Is it true? If this is indeed going on, wouldn't the population figures on the higher graded coins actually make those coins rarer than the figures represent. We know the real money for dealers is in MS68 and higher graded coins and this year even the P mint MS68 quarters only bring nominal profits. How could we find out how many MS67 or lower quality quarters have been sent to PCGS but do not show up in the population report? Thanks for any input.

Stooge

Hello Mr. Eye,

I called PCGS and asked about the "Flag Labels and was told that it was a limited time that they were going to have them and this lady wasn't for sure as to whether or not going to conytinue it. It was just a promotional label for "Dealers Only" and that they will submit sometimes 500 to 1000 quarters at a time and that those labels (flag) were printed on sheets at like 100 at a time. So I would say that dealers will get an advantage to the $10 for a modern coin such as the statehood quarters, as far as which ones NOT to grade at a certian grade otherwise there would be several thousand quarters graded for all grades.

I hope this helps even a little, Paul.

dbldie55

You can't find this out. Morgans get sent in the same way. If they were not graded, they are not in the pop reports. Really does not affect the numbers. For each state quarter there are probable 2-400,000,000 that are of lower grade.

Edited to add: I do not know any dealers who send in any modern coins, so I would not have a clue how many they are sending in that are not getting a pre-determined grade.

wondercoin

Eye: Minimum grade "bulk grading" has been around for years in virtually every series 1932-date, and, as DBLDIE55 points out, in Morgans as well and certainly in gold too.

When I first met Rick M. around 1997 on a more "serious" basis than the prior meetings throughout the prior years, my goal (as a ultra serious collector) was to work out an arrangement for me to "bulk grade" MS silver Roosevelt dimes to further improve my PCGS collection (which was eventually registered #1 in the 1999 PCGS Registry). You could imagine Rick's face when I proposed such a plan (virtually no modern "bulk grading" had taken place at that time in the 1932 to date series to my knowledge), especially on Roosevelt Dimes!! Another PCGS grader was present during one of the early discussions and he could not contain his laughter at my idea to slab Roosies in bulk!! At the time, when I mentioned Lincoln cents from the 1940-dates (including Memorials) as my next pursuit to "bulk grade", their laughter turned into a look as if they were dealing with a mentally challenged coin collector. I really do believe they actually felt sorry for me for several years into the project

I would submit hundreds upon hundreds of handpicked silver Roosie dimes with a minimum grade MS66 and, so long as my % of success was high enough, I would suffer no "penalties" (now that bulk grading has exploded into what it is today, the rules on penalties are much more defined). Back then, it was not uncommon for me to slab fifty or a hundred M66 pieces for every 1 or 2 MS67 coins (or at least I seem to remember it that way) But, I figured, as long as I pulled that -1- MS67 I needed to fill my hole, what was the big deal about owning 95 MS66 coins as well. At the time I registered my Roosie set in the 1999 Registry there were around 400 or so MS67 coins known in PCGS holders (and I got to look at a great % of the entire pop to assemble my set). Now, just 3 years later, there are thousands of MS67 silver Roosies, thanks, in part, to massive "bulk grading".

I knew just how tough it was to "make" that -1- MS67 coin. And, even though the pop report would only show that -1- MS67 and the 50 or 100 MS66 coins, I knew the thousands of coins that were never showing up in the pop report that would have graded MS65, MS64 or whatever but came back in tubes ungraded.

So, Eye, don't feel bad as it concerns State quarters. It is nothing new and it is across the board (Wash Quarters, Jeff nickels, Lincolns, Roosies and on and on). Yes, there are thousands upon thousands (even tens of thousands) of MS & Proof state quarters that were rejected for a holder and will never show up as a statistic in the pop report. PCGS never kept records of the reject bulk coins from other series (that I know of) and probably shouldn't bother with state quarters either.

Wondercoin.

kieferscoins

Great story wondercoin. It is funny that people may laugh now but in a few years that is a major source of their income.

Cameron Kiefer

gmarguli

PCGS never kept records of the reject bulk coins from other series (that I know of)

According to something I once read on the NGC site I believe that PCGS uses these "rejected bulk coins" in their total of coins graded per month. Therefore they examine 1000 Roosevelt dimes and slab only 100 of them. They report grading 1000 coins.

Not that it matters.

wondercoin

Greg: I seem to recall "rejects" might be "counted" to the extent they generated income, such as coins not hitting the minimum grade that a submitter is charged for (and perhaps PCGS therefore pays a grader to grade). However, the word "counted" in that case refers to the general count and certainly no date by date breakdown of the rejects. Also, PCGS does not generate reports on the rejects best I know. In other words, I do not believe the coins that do not make the minimum grade are separated into grade piles before being thrown back in the tube to return to the consignor.

This might not be a bad question though for the Q&A board.
Wondercoin.