ICG -- Comments?

GoldCoinLover

I'm looking forward to the reviews with ICG. I realize it has some mixed opinions, but recently I picked up a magazine which told about different grading services. ICG had 2 articles in there which told all about the its grading service, and even said and showed a picture of a guard who watchs the coins. Yikes! According to the article, the graders seem to be pretty professional. Despite all this, I've heard alot of flak about ICG. From what I"ve oberserved, I think most people would grade them #4 best grading service. I Did like it though that if your coin doesn't get encapsuled, they only charge you $5. I wish PCGS would do that! I also like the style of the holder, it looks cool!

What's your opinion on ICG? Is it worth getting your coins graded by them?

PS: One thing I didn't like about the article is that the graders will only grade and encapsule coins that deem "attractive". This is rediciulous, everyone has a different opinion..

JrGMan2004

Early stuff, they tend to be pretty good... grossly overgrades moderns... Roosy and Mercs, kinda the quasi-modern coins of that time era, are a little overgraded, though I hear Morgans, they tend to be right on with their grades.

Placid

They seem to tend to overgrade 1-2 points in the ms area compared to pcgs and when you sell there is a good chance the amount you get will reflect that.
You can find good deals on icg graded coins if you can spot the ones that are correctly graded or overgraded.
I crossed a 1935-s icg graded buffalo nickel in the slab to pcgs that went from 63-64.

They also seem to possibly not be as good at detecting artifical toning as some other grading services.

JLW

In my opinion ICG stands for I Can't Grade!
Joe

Stuart

I've been impressed enough with some coins in ICG slabs to purchase them at a significant market discount to similar quality (note that I did not say same grade) PCGS & NGC certified coins.

One was an MS-62 PL Seated Liberty Quarter that I really like. It looks almost like a proof

airplanenut

<< <i>According to the article, the graders seem to be pretty professional. >>

Every service will say that--remember, when someone rights about his company, his company will be portrayed as #1... that's why every TPG considers itself #1 some way or another.

As to their grading--I haven't seen much classical, where I hear they're ok... the moderns, tho, they pretty much suck, as they've lost credibility having/still giving out 70s like there's no tomorrow.

Jeremy

PS- It's really not worth getting a coin graded by anyone but PCGS, NGC, or ANACS... that's what the market says.

Stuart

Here's a new (never before seen!) photo of the 1877 ICG MS-62 (PL) Seated Liberty Quarter that I referred to earlier in this thread.