Dear Friends and Clients,

As a coin dealer, collector and eBay seller for 10 years, I have gained some insight on the coin grading services that I would like to pass along here.  Please note that these opinions are my own. 

Many people rely on grading services - often as a substitute to learning how to grade coins themselves. Buying coins on eBay does not really contribute to your knowledge of coins.  To do this, you actually have to work at it: read books, join coin clubs, attend coin shows and patronize honest dealers who are willing to share information with you.

What coin grading services HAVE done is to make it easier to buy coins online and to provide some level of assurance that a coin is genuine and the degree of perfection that it exhibits.  While there are detailed guides and standards behind assigning grades to coins, grading is still a matter of opinion.  More than one test has been made of sending the same coin to the same grading service at different times, the results noting that the same coin was given different grades each time it was submitted.  This is the reality of coin grading and until the perfect computer program is created to measure attributes of a coin (including aethestics), grades will remain a matter of individual judgement and taste. 

But there is a dark side to grading.

There are more than a few coins which are assigned vastly different financial valuations based on a one point difference in grade.  For example, the on the PCGS pricing guide website, an 1891 Morgan Dollar is valued at $650 in MS64, but receives a whopping premium price of $6,800 in MS65.  For this reason, dealers and collectors will sometimes submit and resubmit a coin for regrading, hoping that the stars will align on that date and earn them the higher grade.  In this sense, grading services can easily find themselves in the business of creating fortunes for people.  This has almost certainly led to abuse - the most severe of which is some guy in his living room creating his own grading service and overgrading coins to his heart's content - which he then sells on eBay to the unknowledgeable buyer.  It is often only when the buyer tries to sell his "gem" that he finds out that it was really just a lump of coal.

3RD PARTY GRADING IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR KNOWLEDGE!

That said, there are grading services with more integrity than others - and the prices people are willing to pay for coins in their holders reflect that.  This does not mean that a top grading service will never overgrade a coin.   It also does not mean that a low quality grading service will never assign a proper grade.  It simply means that the better services are more consistent and honest and will often back up their grades with some sort of financial guarantee.

Below are my PERSONAL assessments of some of the grading services commonly seen on eBay.  Again, these are MY opinions.  You should certainly form your own:

PCGS - Undoubtedly the #1 grading service in the world in terms of perceived accuracy of grading.  Take the same coin, put it in a PCGS holder; then take an identical coin and put it in any other holder, the PCGS coin will bring a higher price nearly all of the time.  This does not mean that they are always right, but this is the view of the market.  I feel very comfortable overall buying PCGS graded coins.

NGC - Seen as the #2 service, NGC-graded coins are held in very high esteem and deservedly so.  Their coins bring prices consistently lower than PCGS however.  I personally find the accuracy of their grading on par with PCGS.

ANACS - Started before both PCGS and NGC, ANACS tends to hold the #3 position in terms on the prices their coins bring relative to those brought by PCGS and NGC.  ANACS does something special though - it grades varieties as well as coins that have been cleaned or damaged (noting the "problem" on the holder label).  I find their grading accuracy to be first rate - particularly on Morgan Dollars.

These are the top 3 and, in my opinion, they are the top three by a wide margin.  Some of the rest include:

IGC - Probably one of the best services for grading ancient coins. They are usually reasonably good graders of US coinage, but will not impress the sophisticated collector nor dealer.

SEGS - Nice quality holders that will keep your coin in the best state of preservation possible.  More inconsistent than the top 3 in assigning grades.

ASA/Accugrade - The coin grader's version of a used car dealer - the ones that wear a tacky blazer with an obnoxious tie.  Drive an Accugrade coin off the lot and you get what you deserve - screwed.

NNC - Brought to my attention by a fellow collector and dealer, NNC is a worthy successor to Accugrade.  Their tie is at least as bad as Accugrade's is.  I wouldn't even count on their holders as a guarantee of authenticity, to say nothing of the accuracy of their grades.

SGS - Whomever grades their coins has seems to have NEVER seen fit to grade a Morgan dollar below MS66.  Proof coins in SGS holder nearly always seem to attain the lofty grade of PR70.  Their holders do make for excellent scrapers for removing ice and bird droppings from your car.

There are countless others in the fray and there are likely to be more as time marches on.  I have almost certainly missed other grading services that warrant comment, but I am not trying to write a book here.

The moral of this story is if you want to be a truly successfull collector that can build a collection with pride, learn to grade for yourself.  ANY of the services mentioned above can make a mistake and even some of the worst ones do get it right every now and then.  To repeat what I said at the beginning: read about coins, join clubs, go to shows, talk with and patronize honest dealers.

I hope you find this useful.

John H. Tischler
President
The Eccentric Collector, LLC.

e many grading services out there