Inspired by the latest @Bullion Now video I found Coin Shop Matt's YouTube channel - on this one he discusses PCGS with Eric from Drake Sterling. Nice one!
Is there any real difference between to two companies and the security of their cases? I always assumed that PCGS were the best?
Not really. PCGS agents will tell you no one buys NGC. NGC agents will tell you no one buys PCGS. Both are very good at grading US coins but anything else, including Australian coins, grades are often random numbers and the slab's true value is in authenticity of the coin and conserviing it long term.
Australia only got pcgs that’s why U can check google or ebay Without Australian , people always graded vintage coins from pcgs That’s the market
All depends on the coin and where it's being sold. For example Melbourne shield sovs are better in NGC for British buyers. Early Sydney sovereigns are better in PCGS for Australian buyers.
Some of the PCGS grading of Australian pre-decimal coins is sometimes "odd" IMHO. Therefore, the adage "buy the coin, not the grade" has much wisdom.
Totally agree - IMHO anyone who relies solely on pcgs or any other grading company is taking a big risk, especially with Aussie silver coins. Sure, they're reliable at some things but I don't for a moment believe they are the be and end all for all coins. Case in point - here are photos of a pcgs graded MS65 1963 Aussie threepence. Looks to me like the base of the stalks of wheat have been worn away...anyone familiar with the coin will know that is exactly the spot that tends to go first and, more importantly, that there are plenty of these coins around that are all nice and shiny but don't have clear definition of the ribbon winding around the wheat - it's a trap for the inexperienced, the coin initially presents as an uncirculated item, however there is wear, not only from the production process either which means it should not grade above AU58... The people that graded it at PCGS obviously were not sufficiently familiar with the coin type and overgraded it, probably on the basis of mint lustre, which gets a lot of credit under the Sheldon scale (which is the basis for the pcgs grading system - they say they have adjusted and improved that scale to cater for more than the US coins it was originally put together for (US Large cents)...hmmm...). Personally I have more faith in PCGS grades for US coins, but take their grades with a huge dose of salt for anything else. In the end, even for American stuff, it's still only an opinion, there is nothing absolute about it. It's also worth bearing in mind that if you're fortunate enough to have, say, an unopened roll of coins you want pcgs to grade - what I mean is, you already know that all of these coins have not seen any circulation and any wear is down to the production process (possibly barring one side of the coins at each end), then whatever you do, do NOT send them in all at once. Why ? Surely pcgs will grade them all as uncirculated with quite a few in MS64 or better...? Well, no that's not what will happen. If you send them all in at once, what you will get back is 1 or 2 in the very high grades and the rest in slightly lower grades, including AU55 or AU58, especially if the pcgs graders have not seen a lot of the particular coin type. If, however, you submit them in small batches you will find that you end up with a lot more than 1 or 2 in the very high grade. That's how pcgs works - you might end up with an overgraded coin like the one in the photos, or, you might end up with a whole lot of undergraded coins, or, you might get a more accurate result - all depending on how many coins you send in each time, what kind of coin they are, who actually grades the coins. I don't know about anyone else, but for a company claiming to provide a definitive coin grading service and charging accordingly, there are just too many random variables in their process. It's not surprising that some people actually specialise in buying under graded pcgs coins in order to send them in for regrading.
So who has the best price, purely for authenticity purposes? And what price range so they both sell for?