Best Way to Handle Extremely Undergraded Coins?

Singapore

Caution: There will be no jokes in this post.

I have a couple of colonials which I think we're badly undergraded by PCGS.

I can send them back in for review, which from what I hear and read is extremely unlikely to result in a change.

Or I can crack them out and send them back in (or have them sent it by someone else) and see if the graders are having a better day.

I see the auction houses, like Goldberg, regularly getting coins upgraded all the time, but I'm not sure how they are doing it. I hope its not because they send in 1000 coins a month and have leverage, though I suspect that may have something to do with it.

Any thoughts?

kieferscoins

Crack them and send them back in. Dosen't have to be under some one else's name. As for the major dealers and auction companies, I think they upgrade alot of coins because they look through thousands and pick the best before submitting.

Cameron Kiefer

KlectorKid

What coin was it and what grade did they give it? Pic?

nwcs

Also, on a PCGS regrade, they crack it out for you.

Singapore

As soon as my scanner is up and running I'll post a pic - but my question was more about the general issue of dealing with this situation.

Placid

<< <i>Also, on a PCGS regrade, they crack it out for you. >>



This is what pcgs say's so unless they are liars then no difference between sending it in raw or using regrade exceprt if it comes back even lower grade you don't get any compensation if it's raw.

Oak

I don't have the answer, but I can point out the pros and cons.

If you send it in it's holder for a regrade, you exclude the possibility of the coin coming back in a bodybag or in a lower graded holder, as well as limiting the possibility of it getting damaged in transit. However, in my mind, I think they are less likely to give it a higher grade when it is already in a holder. I can't help but believe that the grader will form an opinion, consciously or subconsciously, based on the grade shown on the original holder.

dorkkarl

<< <i>I have a couple of colonials which I think we're badly undergraded by PCGS. >>

in my experience, pcgs is extremely generous w/ grading of many colonials. what 1's in particular were they?

<< <i>Or I can crack them out and send them back in (or have them sent it by someone else) and see if the graders are having a better day. >>

do they guarantee grades on colonials? i thought they did not

<< <i>I see the auction houses, like Goldberg, regularly getting coins upgraded all the time, but I'm not sure how they are doing it. I hope its not because they send in 1000 coins a month and have leverage, though I suspect that may have something to do with it. >>

maybe somebody will followup, but i thought that pcgs farmed out grading of colonials. do they do it in-house?

i would be extremely interested in follow-up to this thread, my expereience of looking at literally hundreds & hundreds of pcgs-graded colonials shows that they do a very poor job, worst of all the series they grade. also, be careful of them grading machin's mills tokens.

K S

Placid

The cash-back policy ensures the accuracy of the grade assigned to any PCGS coin as long as it remains in its tamper-evident holder.

homerunhall
Senior Member
Tuesday December 24, 2002 10:49 AM (NEW!)

I am very confident in the ability of two major PCGS graders who have extensive knowledge in colonials (Ron Howard and a "new" PCGS grading to be announced shortly.) I believe that auction houses have in some instances been a little too conservative with colonial grading. PCGS grading is more in line with "market acceptable" standards. I believe the same thing holds true for large cents.

Above post in the Q&A.

If Ron Howard grades them I guess they are not farmed out like world coins.

dorkkarl

friend, i do not agree that pcgs-graded colonials bear much acceptance, certainly not sight-unseen, in specialist fields. believe me, having participated in plenty of eac, c-4, bhnc, etc. auctions, pcgs' grading is given little credence , & i have seen such coins result in bids all over the place w/ regard to the alleged grade. this is most true of certain colonials (nj, conn., st. patrick's farthings, mass silver) & to a lesser extent other open-collar issues (early copper, bust material)

maybe the most aggravating thing is their absurdly accurate grading standards (which maybe from what you are saying are going to change). for them to grade a st. patrick as "vf-25" or "au-53" is ludicrous. it is utterly impossible to define such precise grades due to the extreme subjectivity of these issues.

we may have to agree to disagree on this 1!

K S

dorkkarl

just read the q&a thread you mentioned - singapore is 150% correct.

K S

NumisEd

Singapore, why don't you crack the colonials out of their plastic tomb, put them in a 2X2 and write your OWN grade on your OWN holders. Why would you want to put such lovely pieces of Americana in ugly slabs? Seems to me that you are wasting time and money....time that could be used to enjoy your coins and money that could be used to purchase more colonials. Ed

Singapore

Thanks for all of the responses.

To NumisEd -

I like the concept of slabs for 2 reasons:

1. Practicality
I think coins in slabs are easier to store, better protected and easier to view. I've bought a lot of high end stuff that comes in the little cotton booty inside a little paper envelope inside one of those plastic flips and I hate that. Its a pain to look at the coins, requiring maximum handling of the things which = maximum opportunity for me to damage one.

2. Resaleability
Even if the slab grade doesn't influence my purchase decision (OK, maybe a little), it matters to plenty of other people and I therefore believe it will matter, to some degree when it comes time to sell.

I agree with dorkkarl (who I may actually know under a different name) that PCGS slabbed pieces tend to sell for prices not 100% correlated with the grade on the slab. But the correlation between price and PCGS grade is not 0% either. I look for coins I like, ideally pedigreed to famous collections, and I like them in slabs that accurately reflect what they are.

Given that most dealers (or buyers in general) like to play the 'when-I-am-selling-a coin-to-you-its-an-MS65-but when-I-buy-the-same-coin-from-you-its-an-AU58, I like having slabbed coins that also have a traceable pedigree that 'corroborates' the PCGS grade. I personally believe it hard to argue with such coins which = highly marketable stuff.

Thats my theory anyway.