i have a couple 2 oz libertad proof coming. Do you guys think it would be worth my time and money to have them graded? If so who do you suggest?
Its cheap to do when you are in the US. I would get just about everything graded by pcgs if I live there
I'd do NGC...I've heard that PCGS has issues with spotting occuring after the grading service is done. Just say'n...that's what I've heard. I've never graded a coin, so I have no idea, but this is what has been told to me...'go with NGC instead.'
Depends, if you are hoping to get a 69 or 70 then I'd say give the coins a real good looking over and if they look virtually blemish-free, then sure get it graded. I use NGC but only because my first coin graded was actually not a coin at all but rather a Chinese medal (NGC has better qualified professionals for authenticating Chinese medals) and since I became familiar with the NGC submission process, I just kept with NGC. .
There's a mob in Sydney called APCGS or something like that BUT Nobody trusts his grading's & most dealers would break his slabs open
A couple other things which have been bandied about. How accurate this truly is, and on what scale, who knows.. - NGC can tend to grade a bit higher, perhaps than it should.. - Meanwhile, because of this, PCGS-slabbed might fetch more of a premium I have seen some potential examples of this, both in the auction world (re: pricing), and in real-life (where a PCGS XF 45, for example, in some cases can look noticeably better than an NGC XF 45). YMMV.. Honestly, though, with a small collection of already-slabbed (I don't send in any raw, at least not at this point), I don't personally have a preference for either one. I'm after the coin, itself; the slab is secondary.
Grading and slabbing is best for special and rarer coins. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend wasting effort and time for "any coin".
I agree. I especially can't understand the modern craze of slabbing bullion coins. For me, bullion coins are just that, bullion. It seems to be a bit of a money making racket for the grading companies more than anything else. However, each to their own and all that...
Well thanks for the advice guys! I think I'm going to just let them be as they are! I really don't understand the slabbing thing either, I just see ms70 being sold for good money. But hell they are just bullion coins...
It's strange how some people think. If reputable TPG companies would have been around in the early 20th century slabbing and grading fresh from the Fed Reserve banks common, everyday Peace dollars which were minted in the millions, I bet today none of the naysayers of slabbed common coins of the 21st century would utter a peep of condemnation against TPG's providing that service for collectors of Peace dollars back then. It would be awesome if did that happen so that today we may actually have some MS69 and MS70 Peace dollars in existence today. This apparent double standard seems like utter short sightedness and the benefit of grading modern collector or bullion coins today may be most appreciated by our children's children. .
Waste of time ,money and space.. Can handle wasting the time and money... But I'll be damned if I waste valuable space on plastic when I bought a safe for precious metals.. Would need to be 1k plus coin in the metagame in terms of my hindsight Took a few years to decide I couldn't protect em.. As I was a newbile and a baka boy then. If you can't afford to secure it, Don't buy it
As far as slabbing bullion and semi numismatics, not worth it with the exception of pandas (which you'd only send to NGC).
Agreed. Would love to get my hands on some *affordable* MS's for certain older coins. Just not going to happen, though. Certainly not anytime soon. Way out of my budget. Though you have to flip it around, too.. Is the future going to be seeing enough VF's & below for *today's* coins? I don't do many below a certain threshhold, but there's some really cool-looking low-graded old stuff out there. There's even a sub-group of collectors out there who focus on F's, VG's & G's. I kind of don't blame them, as I "get" it, at least to some degree, and appreciate certain ones for what they are. Wouldn't it be weird if someday a 2014 Koala graded F12 was fetching pretty big bucks -- just because of its cool worn design, awesome toning & extreme rarity at that grade, among a vast ocean of perfect / near-perfect MS's? Stranger things have happened...
Here is my two cent on slabs.......Many people will give you the advice that grading of modern coins is a joke or not worth it. Usually their point is that most if not all of the coins are basically the same and for all practical purposes perfect. While they may be right about the coins being mostly the same they are missing the point that there has been a market created for grading modern coins and by becoming knowledgeable in that market one can make substantial profits. Profits way greater than one can make by investing in metal alone. Basically, don't argue with the market.....learn about it and use that knowledge to the betterment of yourself. When you are buying graded coins you are investing mostly in the collectibility of the item you are buying. The intrinsic value in the metal is a much smaller percentage of the investment than there is with straight metal. Don't get the two confused....Metal is tied to spot while an items collectibility can vary wildly. If you are going to invest in collectibility successfully one has to become an expert at what is collectible in the current market and what is likely to be collectible in the future and what items time has passed altogether. It is sort of a hobby and an art all in one as you need to have a feel for what is going on within the market itself. I personally play very heavily in this market and have prospered in it as well. In a declining spot market most of my investments have increased because I had so many graded issues. So while spot tanked from 49 USD to 16 USD I was insulated from the pain by having so many graded items. If you compare that to what happened to a tube of Silver Eagles or Philharmonics for example you see some of the attraction to grading. I would recommend focusing on issues that have populations less than 250 from countries with world wide recognized mints. Great Britain, US, China, Canada, Mexico and some Australian coins. Usually I like Silver coins because the percentage appreciation on them is much higher but I also think 1/10 th gold is a good size. My personal plays right now are Mexico, China and Indian graded coins as I feel those could be some of the large winner coins of the future. I try to look in places where others may not be at the current moment in time. I would avoid mass produced coins like the ASE and Maple. Last point I will make is that if you are going to invest in graded coins you had better know how to sell graded coins. If you don't know what you are doing on the sell side you will end up fumbling on your investment right before you are crossing the goal line.
I'll add to mtforpar's post that it can potentially soak up a *lot* of your time.. :lol: It does become somewhat more efficient after a while, though. And it can be very much worth it -- not just in monetary terms, either.
Or to speed it up a whole lot, you could glue that proof-like Koala coin to your car tire and drive around with it like that for a while then throw it in a plastic box with an egg for a day....you'd have your perfect VG coin with nice toning....voila! .
Eh, for those who collect this stuff & and have seen enough that they can tell the difference, not really the same thing.. Years of wear & toning due to being once-circulated as legal tender for everyday transactions, for example, produces its own unique effects that just can't be replicated otherwise. Some of us are a pretty picky bunch.. Personally, I've passed on some cool stuff, just because it had a small spot or ding or scratch that I didn't like because it was in the "wrong" location.. :lol: And you can't "un-see" it, either, as your eye will keep gravitating towards it, basically "ruining" the coin in one's mind. I'm not the only one like that.
Slabbed bullion coins are only any good for a coin collector with money to waste in my opinion! I could get what ever coins I wanted slabbed in china for next to nothing and nobody would be the wiser even me if the coin was substituted with a fake slabbed.
