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Should I send my modern medals to NGC VS PCGS to save grading cost? Pros & Cons?
Paradisefound
Posts: 8,623 ✭✭✭✭✭
I am contemplating whether to send them to NGC for grading due to the cost ($20 vs $32)?
Would their standard be the same as PCGS? I am well aware the PCGS graded coins command higher price in a secondary market. Please let me know what you think. Thank you.
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I collect for pleasure and not for profit FYI
My sister said to me : “never should on yourself”. It was good advice, forty some years ago. Take my advice.
What is the real meaning if I may ask?
I meant to add , “ask your sister.” (Jokingly) No seriously. I am sure cost effectiveness plays a vital role in our (collectively speaking) decision to use any of a number of other places and services . ANACS is .... Another option.
If you really want to save on grading costs, you could consider leaving them as is or self-slab in either Coin World or Lighthouse slabs. How big are these medals?
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
At least 5 times in my life I have held a coin or series of coins in my hand that I vowed to keep until I die. I am a collector , not an investor. I collect for the joy of holding something in my hand that was a part of history that belongs to me. I have in my " Box of Twenty" both PCGS and NGC holdered coins. In my opinion, all of them are undergraded (Grin). It is common and public knowledge that for the most part, PCGS commands a higher price for the same coin. If its not too much of a monetary strain go for the gold. Better to spend it up front than to try and cross in later life and spend double. By the way, I only have 1 of those 5 coins in my possession now.
Bob Sr CEO Fieldtechs
I have a gold medal at NGC right now. I did not know if ngc or pcgs would grade it, so I sent emails and pictures to both asking. NGC responded, PCGS did not... so NGC got my business this time, lol.
Define "modern medals". Some/many may not be worth slabbing at all. Will the market care?
The price of grading is certainly one consideration. I have been sending medals and tokens to PCGS, as the PCGS slab is visibly clearer. When I look at an NGC slab, I can actually see the grain of the plastic interfering with getting a clear view of the medal, and it's worse under magnification.
Interesting question. NGC has a coin discussion web site. Suggest that you ask this same question over there to get a different perspective. Let us know what you decide.
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
Of the few submissions I have had with PCGS (about 20 medals total), they have never accurately attributed all of the medals in the submission. Additionally, some medals with edge lettering have been put into holders that did not show it, and others with a plain edge have been put in holders with the edge visible. Some medals of the same size were put into different-sized holders. And, many of the large-sized holders I've received have come scuffed up and scratched.
I've only sent 2 medals to NGC, but both were accurately described and slabbed appropriately.
Still, I prefer the PCGS slab and will, in most cases, continue to submit to them.
PCGS !!!
If they're modern, why not the submit under the modern or economy tier?
I have 5 of these common and currently available american liberty 1.598 inches / 40.60 mm
This is a smaller pewter medal of Saint Gaudens
This?
Just a thought --- consider why you want to have your medals put into plastic holders and graded? Does this improve your enjoyment or something else....?
You can buy several very nice, artistic medals for what it would cost to ship, authenticate and grade the ones you have.
Just a thought --- consider why you want to have your medals put into plastic holders and graded? Does this improve your enjoyment or something else....?
You can buy several very nice, artistic medals for what it would cost to ship, authenticate and grade the ones you have.
I have mixed feeling about leaving the medals raw and continue handling them mainly for my pleasure. I thought the cardinal rule is to preserve our coins and Not to handle them as fun objects but who should care...right? I agree with you as well as @bobsr
I will send the Saint medal to NGC since I've seen a similar one in their holder and leave the silver medals in their own capsules. Thanks
Moderns - if you are outside first strike leave them raw
The St. Gaudens medal should be marked as silver on the edge. The antiqued finish may look like pewter but it was just part of the manufacturing process. I don't think they made any in pewter.
Yes it is stamped .999 silver on the edge
Yes it is stamped .999 silver on the edge
I was invited to write an article for the journal of the Medal Collectors of America specifically on the topic of whether medals should be encapsulated or kept raw. My thought is that we are temporary custodians of these pieces of history, and so we should keep them in the best condition possible, and I elaborated on that in my article. In the following issue of the journal there was a lot of feedback from other members, essentially saying I was misguided, and simply didn't possess the ability to handle medals "properly." Those members said that medals were intended to be held and touched -- in the raw -- and that they are manufactured such that handling would not damage them in any way.
Here is such a medal, never encapsulated and certainly lovingly examined throughout its life. Did handling change its appearance over the years?
@cardinal
YES and I found this picture of a more pristine coin presumably a BU?
I see and understand what you're trying to cove; I see the result of not preserving such medals and it is terrible indeed.
I only spoke of mine and mine alone for not being care to a degree because the stage of pleasure they're giving me as a collector. Thank you for posting a one of a kind beauty.......
Don't forget PCGS also has TrueView which I consider a very valuable service.
@cardinal
It is one of my favorite reverse Minerva fending off the British lion and baby Hercules strangling two snakes.
I've learnt so much history by coin collecting and read the story behind each and everyone on them
a celebration of British surrenders of Saratoga (1777) and Yorktown (1781)
Just because you have a medal, does not mean PCGS will grade it. It has to be listed in one of these
https://pcgs.com/tokensandmedals