Ideas for Slab Security
BigAl
Posts: 1,198 ✭✭✭
You're considering purchasing a coin in a slab but are concerned about counterfeit holders, so how do you get comfortable with the purchase?
Some ways people are identified include pictures (facial features), finger prints, and eye vein verification. Each method offers a progressively better form of identification. I think the first 2 approaches are similar to approaches currently used in numismatics, however this third is not. The first (picture) is simply using coin's diagnostics to determine if a coin is genuine. The second (fingerprint) is relying on characteristics of the coin slab to determine authenticity - good but not fail proof.
The third should provide a unique identifier that is almost impossible to counterfeit, but readily verifiable - similar to the eye scan.
The "Eye Scan" for coins - within the slab itself are incorporated many random "veins" or hairs made from a fiber that when a light is emitted through the slab, the random sequence of veins are visible. When purchasing a coin, you use the "Eye Scan" app on your phone to take a picture of the coin, thereby creating a "map" of the veins which can be compared to the vein map on PCGS.com, or simply match your coin online to the PCGS map. Verification takes under a minute and you have comfort that the slab is real.
Any other ideas?
BTW, PCGS if you use this idea, would appreciate some free submissions and Trueview pics.
Some ways people are identified include pictures (facial features), finger prints, and eye vein verification. Each method offers a progressively better form of identification. I think the first 2 approaches are similar to approaches currently used in numismatics, however this third is not. The first (picture) is simply using coin's diagnostics to determine if a coin is genuine. The second (fingerprint) is relying on characteristics of the coin slab to determine authenticity - good but not fail proof.
The third should provide a unique identifier that is almost impossible to counterfeit, but readily verifiable - similar to the eye scan.
The "Eye Scan" for coins - within the slab itself are incorporated many random "veins" or hairs made from a fiber that when a light is emitted through the slab, the random sequence of veins are visible. When purchasing a coin, you use the "Eye Scan" app on your phone to take a picture of the coin, thereby creating a "map" of the veins which can be compared to the vein map on PCGS.com, or simply match your coin online to the PCGS map. Verification takes under a minute and you have comfort that the slab is real.
Any other ideas?
BTW, PCGS if you use this idea, would appreciate some free submissions and Trueview pics.
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Comments
How about a 4? digit "secondary" number, printed very small, which is a secret function of the cert number?
If you have the coin in hand, and a magnifier, on the cert verification page, you could type in the secondary number and see if it's correct.
The secondary number would not be published by PCGS.
I suppose some people selling the coin might provide the number for customers to check, but as long as big databases of them were not published, it might stay somewhat secure.
If somebody repeatedly tried verifying many different secondary numbers for a coin, they would get "locked out".
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
I was a Monkey
Check out my iPhone app SlabReader!
<< <i>If TrueView's were mandatory for every coin graded, it would thwart all counterfeiters. No coin can be perfectly duplicated - strike, color, marks etc. >>
It just needs to fool one person ONCE.
<< <i>If TrueView's were mandatory for every coin graded, it would thwart all counterfeiters. No coin can be perfectly duplicated - strike, color, marks etc. >>
I agree, except for the color. That could possibly change.
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
Resurrecting this thread from a few years back. The idea is completely random fibers or strings in the slab (like hairs in a dollar bill) which are scanned into pcgs. You can pull up this fiberprint on your phone and check if the slab is legit. All dealers, auction houses, online retailers would be able to determine if the slab is authentic. Essentially every slab would be unique and identifiable.
We need a holder approval service !!!
To authenticate a slab I just examine the coin under good lighting using a good loupe and I then grade and authenticate the coin. I then check the information on the slab label to see if it matches my findings. If it matches I can safely assume the slab is real. Of course this technique only works if you know how to grade and authenticate the coins in the series that you collect.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
I would think that the TPGS have been researching such things for several years. No doubt some methods are cost prohibitive... However, as the problem grows, no doubt some method will be incorporated. Cheers, RickO
The most effective security is the plan to put a tiny Leprechaun in each slab. They will remain there forever because they have been told this is the "Pot 'o' Gold" and they must guard it. Fake slabs cannot not have Leprechauns because of a signed agreement between the major TPGs, the Republic of Ireland, and Jameson Irish Whiskey.
Of course, TPGs could also place a unique chip across the top and bottom slab seam.