PCGS has been one of my favored holdering companies ever since its inception in the 1986. The company was founded by David Hall and six other partners, who saw inconsistencies in grading by hobbyists and coin dealers.
To this day, PCGS is the gold standard–literally and figuratively–when it comes to holdering coins. NGC also is a preferred top company. But this article discusses a PCGS coin whose value was exaggerated by the seller and whose label was erroneous.
Here is the coin in question:
Sellers often hype the worth of their coins, using PCGS or NGC price guides and citing those sight-unseen values for raw lots or ones in lesser holders. This particular auction continues to exaggerate values basing them on some nameless “guide.” Doing so on PCGS holdered coins is especially bold because those retail values can be fact-checked online via the certification number:
What is strange about this particular coin is the supergem designation of MS67. Some hobbyists wouldn’t have even submitted this dime because of the album sliding marks and evidence of cleaning on the obverse.
In creating this post, I relied on my knowledge of numismatics (the 1945-S is a common coin with almost 42 million minted). There is a rarer much desired 1945-S micro variety. The story doesn’t end here. The hyped “guide” value prompted me to check the certification number, which contained a TrueView photo that could be expanded so as to view every detail and device.
I enlarged the photo to see if there was anything special about this dime, saw the slide marks and flaws, and then something even more intriguing: PCGS apparently mislabeled this coin as a regular 1945-S when it is actually the rarer 1945-S micro S:
Here is PCGS’s comparison, showing the regular S has bulbous serif while the micro S has a smaller, straighter serif:
The coin was the desired variety, the micro-S mintmark. That designation was not on the label. PCGS may not be to blame for this oversight. The person who submitted it neglected to use the correct PCGS number when submitting.
The seller doesn’t note the micro S in his description, which simply stated: “1945-S Mercury Silver Dime PCGS MS67.”
The micro S 1945 dime at MS67 retails at $475, still a long way off from $3,000.
If you check the cert today, you will see that someone savvy buyer figured out that the “S” was micro and resubmitted. If you input the cert now you will see:
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