Do they ever make mistakes on Authenticity???

Wisconsin

With all the controversy on grading, I was wondering if any of the big grading companys ever make mistakes on the matter of authenticity??

jmwarren

without a doubt, yes.

Conder101

Let me second that, Yes they do. It doen't happen often at the first tier services, but it does happen.

ldhair

You will also run into wrong attributions as well.

Pushkin

Yes, It happens. With the top tier services, probably not enough to be worried about. Nobody is perfect.

crito

I'd say of the "big three", being PCGS, NGC and ANACS, your odds of finding a slabbed counterfeit are less than 0.1% (a tenth of one percent). Though, if you were to break that down between US and foreign coinage, it's much easier to find a slabbed foreign counterfeit especially of Asian origin (i.e. "dragon" dollars). They grade mostly US coins, so that's to be expected, I suppose.

agentjim007

I heard a while back that some of the original dies were saved from some california fractional gold and those copies got into holders.

dorkkarl

i have never personally handled a slab w/ a counterfeit coin in it. however, i have 2d-hand knowledge of several, ie. i personally know well-respected collectors who have owned such slabs. one of the most famous is a 1825 counterfeit bust half, attributed as davignon variety 1/A. pcgs slabbed it & it fooled several experts who thought it was a new overton variety. it was originally offered, i think for over $10,000, but it turned out to be a die-struck counterfeit.

considering a bogus coin made w/ circa 1860 technology fooled pcgs, you'd have to believe there are plenty of slabed counterfeits out there.

btw, anacs does an incredible job of detecting counterfeits. it's the only plastic service i use any more, just for that purpolse, & have been extremely impressed w/ their ability to filter out the bogus stuff.

K S