jaggy

I have never participated in a Baldwins sale. Perhaps an opportunity for you to attract new clients.

Do you have the NGC certificate numbers?

Examine them very carefully and especially for hairlines which might suggest cleaning or other damage which was not evident from the photos.

I withdrew my bids by email. I wasn't sure if they would respect that. However, it would appear that at least two of the coins I had planned to bid on are not listed on the results page which suggests that they were not sold.

There are four on each reverse.

Sixpence - my only Lima coin

For a number of reasons I decided to start having my coins certified and graded by NGC. That is not a discussion I want to get into here. However, I did want to share my first impressions based on the batch of 20 coins I sent in. First, cost. I chose the elite level of membership because of the ten percent discount. Cost per coin is $35, less 10% plus shipping for the standard turnaround time. So probably around $40/coin. You can do an economy grading tier which is $20/coin less the 10% and I will use that for a number of my coins. Second, turnaround. I sent the coins by US priority mail on the 24th August and, according to their system, the grading has been finalised and I should get them back towards the middle or end of next week. So approximately two weeks door to door. Third, grades. I am both happy and unhappy but I completely understand where they get the grades from. 11 of the 20 were graded MS62 or better with a high spot of MS66. There were four AU 58 and one AU 53. There were also four 'details', one for a scratch and three for hairlines. While the grading is strict, when I look closely at the coins I can see where they get that from. Conclusions. Where you buy your coins matters if you cannot see them 'in hand'. Coins I bought from Glendinning's in the past and DNW in the past few years consistently did better than coins bought elsewhere (not counting Heritage where they are already slabbed). Three of my four 'problem coins' came from London Coins. Not to beat about the bush, their photography flatters to deceive and their descriptions are, shall we say, 'economical'. Unfortunately, my bids are already in for this next auction but that will be the last one of their auctions that I buy from. Clearly, DNW has a more rigourous and professional approach when it comes to grading and describing coins than LCA. Furthermore, buying from a named and known collection also gives better results. My MS66 came from the Late Neil B. Todd Collection which DNW sold. Provenance does matter. The other lesson is to examine carefully the coin before I send it in. No point paying good money for grading a coin that has problems. I did not send my best or most valuable coins in this first batch as I didn't know what to expect. However, I think their process is pretty good and I am comfortable sending other coins to them.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the speed of the NGC turnaround.

To be honest, I did my research and chose to go with NGC. That does not mean that PCGS are better or worse. But I liked the NGC website, I found their customer service people to be fantastic and other collectors I spoke to seemed to lean towards NGC. Having paid for NGC, I'm not also going to pay for PCGS. So I doubt I will be in a position to judge PCGS service unless, for some reason, I choose to change. It is entirely possible that PCGS is a better option than NGC from Europe. With regard to LC, obviously not all of their coins will be 'problems'. But given my experience and what we know about their business culture, I think that, if you cannot see the coins in hand, there is too much risk in buying from them. Your point about live bidding is an additional impediment.

I do have another 1911 proof which is not as 'wacky'. But the reverse is still nicely toned and more so than in many of the currency pieces.

That really is a nice coin Paulus!!!!

With Heritage and London Coins where I can almost always use their photo for my catalogue, I always have to re-photo coins won at DNW. Not a big problem but definitely an area for improvement. Still not as bad as Spink, however. My cabinet saves also disappeared. I think it happened when they moved the auction catalogue out of preview.

Absolutely agree. The big unknown from a UK perspective is whether the market will begin to demand third party grading in the future. Right now it dos not. That may or may not change.

Maybe you need to change insurer.

My collection is insured through my home insurance and I provided the insurance with a list of the coins and my values. My cataloguing software allows me to do that quite easily. I suspect that most collections are simply not valuable enough, or easy enough to dispose of, to be of interest to the professional thief. And deterring the casual thief is just a matter of reasonable home security and a safe.

The difference between CGS and NGC/PCGS - as I understand it and I could be wrong - is that NGC/PCGS offer the verification service for free and CGS does not. In other words, if you know the certificate number of the coin, you can go on the NGC or PCGS site and look it up. That gives the buyer independent verification before he/she buys the coin. If you are in the USA - as I and a couple of others are - having the coin slabbed and graded offers greater liquidity. In other words, a raw or uncertified coin is much harder to sell and will probably sell for a lower value simply because it has not been certified. I accept that this is not the case in the UK or other markets as yet. Whether that changes over the coming years remains to be seen. And, of course, some see the protective value of the slab as desirable.

Good point! I don't use GPS on my phone when taking photos. But the security aspect of GPS is something I had not considered.

NGC has a 'regrade" service. If you disagree with the assigned grade then you can resubmit. Does CGS offer similar?

I only have a safe and a Glock.

Well, I have all my receipts going back to the 1980s but that is just me. I also have the auction catalogues where I bought coins (when at auction) so that, when I started my computer catalogue, I was able to record when and where the coins were acquired and at what price. In addition, where there is 'provenance' (e.g. Willis), I also record that in my system. As a buyer, I like to know where a coin has come from if that information is available and I note that both Heritage and DNW will include the info.

Not a problem! Hope my post helped.

Essentially, you have to pay this fee to become a 'member' at CGS and it is membership which gives you submission rights. You also have to pay for each submission although CGS gives you the £499 as a credit on submissions. That means you have to submit somewhere north of 30 coins to get your money's worth. The other TPGs do the same thing. At NGC you have three levels; Associate ($39/year), Premium ($149/year) and Elite ($299/year). The level you choose will depend upon how many coins you choose to grade. NGC also have a number of different grading tiers and at different prices and turnaround times depending on what you need.

Yep! I don't understand why anyone would use CGS over NGC or PCGS. Outside of London Coins Auctions, CGS has almost zero market recognition. I do think that the UK market is slowly moving towards acceptance of third party grading - though nothing like the US market as yet - and the gradual change in opinions on this forum reflects that. When I first joined this forum, the consensus was very definitely anti-slabbing. I think that perspectives - including my own - have changed over the past few years. The challenge for CGS is in becoming the de facto TPG standard for the Uk and for British coins. From what I have seen so far, they are a long way off ever getting there.

I found your comments on the security issue to be interesting and must admit that it is a concern to me which I do think about when posting new acquisitions. In your research was there a pattern to robberies; i.e. gold coins, high value, etc. etc.? I think there is a balance to be struck between enjoying a collection - which also means sharing it with other collectors - and security. If the only way to enjoy one's coins is in the safety deposit room of a bank then why bother?