What IS going on with Secure Plus Imaging?

mnemtsas2

I've noticed a real deterioration in the quality of Secure Plus images in the last few months. I understand that you cannot expect trueview quality but a certain expectation of quality is there, as is an expectation of an actual image of the coin. Here's a direct quote from the Secure Plus page on our host's site:

"High-quality images available at no charge at Cert Verification"

And here's some images from a friend of mine's recent submission. This is 3 images out of 13 coins. Clearly not acceptable.





I have been told that PCGS have been completely unresponsive (from another friend who has experienced the same problem) regarding this type of imaging via email. If these images are those used to "secure" the coins (by image recognition presumably) in the future then clearly they won't work and the system will fail. And we're all forced to pay the Secure Plus fee for essentially nothing.

So, what is going on????

LochNESS

Um ... that's really weird. Especially since the coins appear to be out of their holders, implying they were photographed beforehand, and my understanding was they get photographed after being placed inside the holder.

I have really enjoyed the TruView photos I've seen although I have yet to pay for any of my own. But I'm not keen on my coins sliding around that plastic tray and possibly being scratched just to get a picture taken.

jetblack740il

This was discussed previously here.

brg5658

"Secure Plus" imaging is an automated scanning process. They are not photographs. And, they are not intended to be of high quality.

The only purpose of the imaging portion of the Secure Plus "service" was to get a fingerprint of the sorts for the coin so that 1) a potential buyer could verify a coin in the holder they are looking at is the coin that was put there by PCGS, and 2) so that (supposedly) upon crack out and resubmission of a coin PCGS would know that the coin had previously been graded by them.

Other components of the Secure Plus "service" were to "sniff" the coin for chemicals -- which has been grossly overestimated as a means to ensure that no artifical toning or other monkey business has taken place. And, of course, financially, PCGS gets to charge you more money for these wholly automated services that really add nothing to the certification process of substantive utility.

I'm not convinced that the "fingerprinting" of the coins is actually ever really used by PCGS to detect for crackouts and resubmissions.

So, in summary -- the images are neither high-quality nor at not charge. They are low quality scans and they are paid for by the increased submission fee requiring use of Secure Plus for world coins.

YQQ

Morning all,
I am at a stone wall here:
what is this black contraption in the images?

PCGSPhoto

The black plastic is the surface of the secure scanning platform. The circle crop occurs automatically via software - as such it's not always reliable. We can go in and manually crop it so it is correct, just provide us with the cert number.

dbcoin

<< <i>Um ... that's really weird. Especially since the coins appear to be out of their holders, implying they were photographed beforehand, and my understanding was they get photographed after being placed inside the holder.
>>



your understanding is totally wrong. Coins are scanned out of their holders

mnemtsas2

<< <i> And, they are not intended to be of high quality. >>



I suggest then you re-read the Secure Plus page on the PCGS site where (as I already said) is says:

"High-quality images available at no charge at Cert Verification"

These friends of mine have spend hundred (and thousands in one case) in slabbing fees and if the Secure Plus page says "high quality" then the quality better be decent. Or they are not getting what they paid for.

mnemtsas2

<< <i>The black plastic is the surface of the secure scanning platform. The circle crop occurs automatically via software - as such it's not always reliable. We can go in and manually crop it so it is correct, just provide us with the cert number. >>



Thank you I'll get the CERT numbers for you and send you a PM.

brg5658

<< <i>

<< <i> And, they are not intended to be of high quality. >>



I suggest then you re-read the Secure Plus page on the PCGS site where (as I already said) is says:

"High-quality images available at no charge at Cert Verification"

These friends of mine have spend hundred (and thousands in one case) in slabbing fees and if the Secure Plus page says "high quality" then the quality better be decent. Or they are not getting what they paid for. >>




I don't really care what the page says (and yes I read the link). It's simply false. The Secure Plus images are scans and are of uniformly poor quality (and have always been since Secure Plus was introduced) . That is a fact.

mnemtsas2

<< <i>I don't really care what the page says (and yes I read the link). It's simply false. The Secure Plus images are scans and are of uniformly poor quality (and have always been since Secure Plus was introduced) . That is a fact. >>



I am pleased that you have your place in the world sorted and kudos. But your world view doesn't change what it says on the PCGS page and what the perceptions of others are. Right now the PCGS page says high quality images, they are not, confusion reigns. Clearly there's some sort of issue that needs resolving here. Perhaps it's as simple as our hosts removing the mis-leading information on their site.

brg5658

<< <i>

<< <i>I don't really care what the page says (and yes I read the link). It's simply false. The Secure Plus images are scans and are of uniformly poor quality (and have always been since Secure Plus was introduced) . That is a fact. >>



I am pleased that you have your place in the world sorted and kudos. But your world view doesn't change what it says on the PCGS page and what the perceptions of others are. Right now the PCGS page says high quality images, they are not, confusion reigns. Clearly there's some sort of issue that needs resolving here. Perhaps it's as simple as our hosts removing the mis-leading information on their site. >>



Why don't you give PCGS a call and suggest that they change it? I don't get the impression PCGS personnel read the World Coin Forum often, so you're not likely to get much attention here.

What I think is misleading is that the example coin they link to in their description of the Secure Plus service is a PCGS CoinFacts image -- which is a professional photograph, but is not included at no cost.



What the 2nd "Secure Plus" free version image of that coin looks like is below -- which clearly sucks.

SYRACUSIAN

I believe that the Secure Plus images' quality is proportional to the Tier that the coins were submitted. At least in my case, Regular Submissions, received far better images than Economy Submissions. And then, there's the TrueView option, still at $10, for whoever wants his coins truly imaged as nice as it gets.


Otherwise, the way I see it, Secure Plus imaging, is pretty much the same safe measure that NGC is taking by scanning their slabs, so that by introducing a cert number in their database, the image of the coin in the slab has to appear, a very effective method to detect some recent tampered NGC holdered coins that have been sold.