Suspicious Registry sets

earlwbollinger

I am suspicious of some of these #1 rated registry sets.
The ones that are closed, brings up the question as to how you would confirm it is the actual set should it appear in auction or show?
The owner could substitute out lesser coins and still say it is authentic. Trying to do the math to calculate the actual rating is beyond me,
so I assume most other people couldn't do the math either.
All I see is if I go to a auction and the set is up for auction, I cannot confirm whether it is the correct set or not or someone swapped out some of the coins.
A certificate of authenticity doesn't really mean anything.

At least if the set is open, you could print out the list and check the MS or PR ratings on the coins to see if they match.
Photos would even be better, if the PCGS cert numbers are visible, so you could confirm the cert #'s.
Granted someone could swap out a not so good MS69 for a better MS69, for example, but I myself would have a lot of trouble telling one MS69 from another.
Anything over MS64 starts to look all alike to me, more or less. It gets tough to start counting microscopic nicks and scratches, etc.

dbldie55

Open or closed makes little difference. It there is a PCGS number in the database, they count.

earlwbollinger

But how do you know the set up for auction is the same as the one in the registry?

Robgetty

Why would you care if you are buying a coin from the #1 set, or just buying
a spare from someone with a #1 set? Unless you are looking for a pedigree,
then why does it matter? If you like the coin, great. If you are buying it
just because it used to be in a top registry set, that doesn't make a lot of
sense to me.

sumdunce

The math really is not that difficult.

Print out the bonuses page. Print out the composition page.

Add together all the weights on the composition page. This is going to be your denominator.

Add the bonus related to each individual coin to the PCGS grade on the insert. This we can call the enhanced grade. Multiply the enhanced grade by the weight for that coin on each coin of the set. This we can call the weighted grade per coin. Now add all the weighted grade per coin numbers together for the entire set. This is going to be your numerator.

Now divide the numerator by the denominator and you will have the weighted grade for the set.

earlwbollinger

Thanks, now it makes sense.

BNE

I don't think too many number one sets that are "closed" are sold as number one sets. If for no other reason for grooming the set for sale, the coins are usually listed, and promoted by saying "check out the set online."

BNE

Also, one of the main reasons to close a set is to try to protect oneself from dealers who may jack a price up if they know they have the one coin you need for your set. If your set is complete, and where you want it to be (and especially if you want to generate interest in it), there's little reason to keep it closed.

earlwbollinger

Ah yes. That was the thing I hadn't thought of.
Yes closing a set would make sense, if your hoping to get that one coin better than yours.
Thanks

segoja

You would never know the cert 's even on an open set, so there is no way of really knowing which coins you get if you were to buy a #1 set.

I've bought a few complete #1 sets. You just have to buy the coins. If they have dups, then so be it.

I have a #1 set and have about half the set or better with dups.

As the saying goes, buy the coin, not the holder and you'll never go wrong!

RegistryCoin

I thought BJ had a rule about #1 sets: Don't they have to be open to receive the award?

earlwbollinger

I think not being able to figure out how they do the math for the set rating had me the most stumped.
Since it was explained how it was done earlier, it makes it easier now to simply do the math to
double check the rating.

I do agree about the coin not the slab, but when you get up to the MS68.MS69,MS70 (PR's too) grades it gets tough to see the differences on some coins.