Q: crackouts and populations...

Hyperion

this just occurred to me...
each coin has a certain mintage...
if you look at a population report, you get a certain number of coins falling into different grading categories...
but if people keep cracking and resubmitting the same coins over and over...doesn't this present a false image of the total quality of the coin population ?

Im just a newbie, so maybe there's some way to mitigate this.
thanks for your time, as always.

p8nt

The pops are wrong to some degree. You are correct in assuming this.

In an effort to minimize the miscalculations, PCGS has the 50c "bounty" on each label. In other words, they will pay you 50c for each certificate you return to them after having cracked the slab. However, there are many people who do not bother returning them.

Cool Story.

Hyperion

great article ! spot on. I am not on the submitting end so i didn't realize that was part of the mechanics. thanks..

chloebess

Do the TPG's notify one another on "crossovers"?

I assume they do but wondered if someone here could confirm it.

Barry

Hyperion - you are absolutely correct. The pops are useless. GIGO (garbage in, garbage out)