Depends on who grades it, slabs are easier to forge than coins. Get some top tier third party grading companies and you should be alright for the moment but if you are buying coins in slabs you probably need to do a bit of research into the top brands first. Some companies grade and slab their own coins, they are not third party graders and might just give the coins a higher grade to get more money.
More than the grade I just want to make sure it's real. I think it's the only way I'll buy older coins from here on out. Is PCGS legit? Who are the top grading services? Thanks for any advice.
I don't use them myself, they are not that popular in the UK or Oz but they are very popular in the USA. Believe it or not they are harder to confirm if they are in a slab, you can't weight them or measure the thickness or run a magnet over them. PCGS and NGC are the two main ones. You will pay extra for the guarantee of someone else saying they are genuine but with a small amount of practice and a lot of looking and handling of coins you will soon find out which ones are genuine and which are fake. If you are buying high end coins then there needs to be a learning curve first. You can make a lot of mistakes by diving straight in, and they are costly if you are buying old coins.
Yea the mistakes are what I'm trying to avoid. I may just stick with the government minted bullion coins.
Don't need to buy graded bullion just to ensure they're real. You can just stick to buying from legitimate sources, and also go for coins/bars that are hard to counterfeit (e.g. Canadian maples with their privy marks, bars with holograms)
PCGS and NGC are the top two in the world, they are becoming very popular in Australia and much more common at auction. CGS are a UK based company and have a very good rep in the UK. APCGS are not related to PCGS and are not well looked upon in Australian numismatic circles. But I wouldnt buy bullion in a slab only numismatic (i.e. rare, old coins).
I don't think I have seen a single graded coin for sale within australia, however, I haven't been to any coin shows so there might be a few there. The grading companies aren't to be trusted either, it was either NGC or PCGS that were grading damaged crocs as ms70 so be careful which coins you buy. Especially modern ones.
Seriously..., all numismatic auctions (noble, status, downies) feature them. Check out Drake sterling or sterling currency. Like I said before buying slabbed bullion is not for me, but most high grade australian pre decs will end up in a slab over the next few years.
I don't worry about the bullion. That's why I'll most likely stick with it. The coins that scare me are the Morgan dollars, Peace dollars, and 90% half dollars which suck because I like those coins.
Sorry, your right. I was supposed to say modern coins but didn't get to it. I would only buy circulating/circulated coins if I bought a slab. Modern coins like lunars would already be good enough not to slab, they've never been touched.
Didn't want to start another topic. Does anyone know where I can get the white cotton gloves? Briefly checked walmart and a Rite Aid but didn't find any. Want them tonight so online is a no go. Thanks.
For real? Does it really matter? I just remove them straight into airtites. Main reason tho is just got my Poseidon coin today and I've been afraid to turn it over and look at the other side.
You can get cotton gloves at most pharmacists. I know plenty of people who do use them, none of them are dealers though.
You should see this video by NGC when they grade the coins, cos even they don't use gloves! http://www.ngccoin.com/coin-grading/grading-process/
I can see why they don't. Only place I've found them is online. No gloves for me then. I only touch them once anyways.
