Coin Update News column by Michael Bugeja focusing on third party coin grading. Includes articles about concerning leading grading firms PCGS and NGC, as well as how a coin’s condition and grading attributes can play a role in value and collectibility.

The above title–”NGC ‘Plus’ Earns a ‘Star’ Over Insecure PCGS Plus”–pains me to write, as I am a member of PCGS’s Collector Club and for many years preferred its grading to NGC in the latter’s “body bag” days when every fourth submitted coin seemed to earn that defeatist designation. Then PCGS came out with its [...]

Recently I purchased from a Heritage online auction a 1923 Peace Dollar, MS64, for $26 and two 1921 Morgan Dollars, MS63, for $30 and $24, respectively. That may seem like a bargain. The retail value of those three NGC and PCGS graded silver dollars is about $140, or a savings of $60. However, these “hammer” [...]

My local coin dealer is one of my best friends and, at times, business partner, as we buy and sell to each other in his shop or our coin club auctions. But two things he said to me recently caused me to change how I collect when it comes to grades and holders. He doesn’t [...]

At coin clubs, shops and shows, I meet collectors and dealers who complain about bad grades by the top four grading companies–NGC, PCGS, ANACS and IGC–keeping suspect slabs for show and tell. “Look at this Morgan dollar!” a collector might say. “Why did it grade AU58 when it is obviously uncirculated?” Well, mistakes and misgrades [...]

Sometimes we purchase or receive back from grading companies holdered coins without our fully understanding the attribution on the label, as happened to me three years ago when I received an MS67 “FT” designation from NGC on a 1946-S Roosevelt dime. Because I subscribe to Coin World, I keep an inventory of my holdings on [...]

In his March 25 announcement of the Big One, a new PCGS service called Secure Plus, the grading company’s co-founder David Hall announced that a switch had been turned on in the numismatic world that “changes everything.” “Imagine a world without coin doctoring,” Hall proclaimed. “Imagine a world without ‘gradeflation.’ This is the right thing [...]

Writing this, I’m coming off a week of dealing with PCGS customer service in the USPS mishandling of some of my best regraded coins. I say this for a reason. My trust factor with PCGS rose substantially because of superior service in tracking and finding my coins and getting them to me with regular updates. [...]

As a numismatist, I have come to rely more on the views of top authorities who love coins more than the holders containing them, and no one tops Q. David Bowers on coins. He has been author or co-author of dozens of books since his first in 1962, United States Half Cents, 1793-1857, with several [...]

Editor’s Note: This is the last of a three-part article about direct and dealer submissions to the top two third-party coin grading companies, with the first installment covering the basics; the second, direct PCGS submissions; and the third, NGC dealer submissions. Read Part One and Part Two. In previous installments, we covered reasons why you [...]

Editor’s Note: This is the second of a three-part article about direct and dealer submissions to the top two third-party grading companies, with the first installment covering the basics; the second, direct PCGS submissions; and the third, dealer NGC submissions. View Part One. View Part Three. After analyzing benefits of the PCGS Collector Club and [...]