Who is/was INS grading company??

coinbuf

I was at a local show and looking at a case of any older gentleman seller. He had an older photograde slab and the insert said it was graded by INS. I'd never seen or heard of this TPG; has anyone else? Perhaps conder101 or someone that has his book can shead some light on the subject.

Chris

Julian

INS was run by Charles Hoskins and Skip Fazzari. They had the original ANACS in Washington, DC and after ANA moved it to CO, I believe they started this in Phila. Skip may not have gone with Charles. I just cannot remember.

Skip is now part of the NGC team and an excellent numismatist.

coinbuf

Thanks Julian. I thought the coin was quite nice and graded correctly but had no idea as to who thay were, only that it had to have been graded long ago.

Chris

Conder101

I'm not sure who started INS, full name International Numismatic Society Authentication Bureau, (Begun in 1975) but it wasn't Hoskins. Charles Hoskins was the Director of ANACS beginning in 1972 and he remained in that position until after a burglary over a weekend at ANACS in Sept of 1976. Oddly, nothing was "taken" during the burglary, but the ANACS's extensive files of diagnostices for genuine key date coins was copied! And it had been an inside job as there was no forced entry. Shortly after the burglary Hoskins resigned at ANACS and became President of INS.

INS originally dealt mainly with non-US coins. US material did not begin to dominate at INS until sometime in 1977. They were located at that time in Washington DC and their first two certificates were little more than a sealed pouch with polaroid photos of both sides of the coin with a serial number, and a card with the serial number and a description of the coin. The first type used a 3X5 sized card, on the second the certificate was now an 8 1/2 X 11 sheet with the description and a detailed 43 line checklist. These two certificates were used until 1987 at which point they began using photoslabs, licensing the shells from ACG. There are two varieties using these shells from the Washington DC office.

In 1992, INS moved to Philadelphia PA and they issued one variety of photoslab still using the ACG licensed shells.

Around 1997 INS moved again, this time to Aston PA and released one variety of holder still with the ACG type photoslab. This slab is apparently very rare. To date I have only seen one specimen and it may no longer exist. (The slab held an 1849 proof half cent. A coin vertually unsalable today unless it is in one of the major services slabs. So chances are very good that the coin has by now been cracked out and reslabbed elsewhere.)

Julian

Given Conder's thoughts, you might add Bob Paul from Phila to the mix. He had something to do with it, especially the holder, and was most recently involved with the waffle coins.

AndyNC2005

If I'm not mistaken, they're still listed on the Blusheet. Why?

Conder101

The Bluesheet people say it is because they still show up in auctions from time to time. This is a BS reason since they almost never show up and there are other old services that are not listed which show up much more frequently. It's been some time since I've seen a bluesheet. Anyone have the list of the companies they have pecentage comparisons on?