PalladiumBlog.de

In the United States the grading of coins by specialised companies is very popular. These companies use the Sheldon System, developed by Dr. William H. Sheldon in the year 1949, to rate the quality of a coin. There are 70 different gradings, which help defining the quality of a coin very detailed. The Sehldon System uses special letter combinations and a number from 1 – 70 (which means best quality). For coins in proof quality the Sheldon System is very useful, because there are 10 different ratings only for different proof qualities. Also it is possible that proof coins are graded under 60, if they have scratches or other damages, there exist graded proof coins under AU-50.

Also in my opinion the grading system has not only advantages. There are many different grading companies in the US. A test of these companies by PNG (Professional Numismatists Guild) and ICTA (Industry Council for Tangible Assets) in the year 2006 has shown big differences between the opinions of the different grading companies. So you should not only belief in grading results, you should also have your own opinion about the quality of coins. PCGS (Professional Coin Grading System) and NGC (Numismatic Guaranty Corporation of America) have been the winners. A disadvantage of graded coins is that they are not packed in their original packaging any more, because they are repacked by the grading companies in a special “coin slab”, which includes the grading certificate with the grading grade and the name of the coin and an own identification number. The problem is that the original certificates are not together with the graded coins anymore and also it is not possible anymore to see the letterings on the edge anymore. Sometimes it has been happened that the coin slabs have been opened by force and high graded coins have been replaced with lower graded coins. Coins with very good “grading” have much better prices then lower graded coins. Also there could be big price differences between a MS-69 and MS-70 graded coin in the market.

At the moment there is no possibility to grade coins in Europe. Only empty coin slabs can be ordered in the US and you could do the grading yourself. To avoid such own gradings, PCGS has a special database, where all graded coins are indexed and could be find with the identification number (PCGS-database).

Also PCGS has graded EMU Palladium coins (for example):

To see the process of a grading just watch the advertisement film of PCGS: :

PCGS.com Video (Cable/DSL)

PCGS.com Video (Dial-up)