couple questions

lightsareout

i'm just getting into collecting...

First whats the difference between the SGS and CGS and NGC and all the other ones?

also is cleaning coins bad, if not whats a good safe product to use?

123cents

Welcome to the forum Lightsareout. You will find you can learn alot from the posts on this forum. To answer you questions, I would only buy graded coins from the major grading services such as: PCGS, NGC, and ANACS. I would also recommend that you do not clean your coins. It will only lessen their value and do damage to them.

Russ

Russ, NCNE

AlixTCat

Welcome to the board!

First of all, yes, cleaning is bad. There is no real way for a novice to clean coins properly and without ruining the value of the coin. Do NOT clean your coins.

As for the Third Party Graders (TPG's), there are three or four that are considered accurate. When buying coins graded, which I recommend for a new person to coins, you should buy PCGS, ANACS & NGC. (There is one other I can't remember, but those are the top three in my opinion.) You should stay away from other TPG's until you are able to grade coins yourself. (Many years of experience) Stick with the top TPG's and you are less likely to get rooked on your coin purchases.

Try to go to some coin stores and coin shows and just look at coins. Get a feel for grading and conditions of coins.

Buy what you like and like what you buy. (I stole that from a sage.)

Jonathan

jmj3esq

DO NOT CLEAN. USE ONLY PCGS AND NGC and maybe ANACS (but they are slowly losing me). All other third party graders are inherently suspect (to me anyway).

rec78

NO to cleaning. For slabs stick with NGC,PCGS and ANACS. AND read ask questions on this forum before making a major purchase--There are lots of knowlegable folks here who will help. Buy books and look over auctions and at shows and ask questions before buying. Take your time. Decide what you like and buy that. Since you are new if in doubt dont buy it especially on ebay. Get to know and trust some dealers before buying anything major. Hope this helps ya. Bob

lightsareout

thanks everyone for your replys. So SGS is a third party and should probably stay away from? Also i'm interested in getting into the cherrypicking, is that volume 2 book a good one to get?

relayer

Only PCGS and NGC back their grades with a money gaurantee.

So any other slab company grades the coin as MS65 and it's really a MS63 you overpaid and have no recourse.

So stick with PCGS and NGC (and ANACS - at least you'll know those are genuine)

Edit - and DON'T try to clean any coins. That is the quickest way to ruin them.

CarlWohlforth

Welcome!

Grading is an opinion. Companies that provide a grading opinion are called third party graders or TPGs. All companies have different grading standards. I usually recommend sticking with NGC and PCGS because they seem to have the strictest standards and also appear to be the most consistent.

The SGS graded coins I've seen were way off. That is I had a coin graded MS 65 by SGS that should have been graded MS 63.

Musky1011

Welcome Y.N.

go the coin swap, tag, giveaway board

go to the J.P.'s Weekly Y.N. giveaway and post to enter

Jim

lightsareout

wheres a good place to start with a collection?

Whizzard

<< <i>wheres a good place to start with a collection? >>



Do not clean coins.

Buy only PCGS, NGC, and ANACS slabs. SGS blows.

What do you mean, "Where's a good place to start.?" Collecting coins can be anything you want it to be.

Lots of people starting in collecting start with a type set. That is, one nice example from each type of U.S. coinage. There are albums to put these in, for instance, the best is a Dansco 7070 "US Type from 1800".

And ..

coinbuf

<<wheres a good place to start with a collection? >>

The best place to start is with what intrests you and fits your budget. Welcome and fasten you seat belt.

Chris

Russ

<< <i>So SGS is a third party and should probably stay away from? >>



SGS isn't even a TPG at all. They're just a fancy holder.

Russ, NCNE