Grading is expensive. If you don’t know how to grade coins, buying ones from top-tier companies mentioned here will be your best bet. If you want to send you coins to a company, though, you had better know the various companies and which ones to avoid.
Also, some general price an submission rules. Go to the site of the top companies here and read their price and submission guidelines:
If you decide on a company, be sure to note whether it has membership fees. You’ll also have to pay grading, handling and mailing fees. If you want photos of your coin, you’ll pay more. If you are submitting error coins, you’ll pay again. As such, you don’t want to join a company and send in one coin. Figure at least five.
And you will have to fill out forms and use the correct flips for submissions.
Each holdering company has its own rules, but two stand out with their grades so consistent that they were considered sight-unseen buys in the pre-internet era. Those are PCGS and NGC.
TOP TIER
My favorite for U.S. coins is PCGS because of its spectacular TrueView photos and set registries. Here’s one from a coin that I sold recently at GreatCollections, an MS68 1990 American Silver Eagle that looks like a flag, primarily because it was stored in corrugated cardboard.
NGC grades as consistently as PCGS. I recommend it for ancients.
Both PCGS and NGC have shortcomings. For instance, they are inconsistent with toned coins, often calling them artificial. But I always recommend the two if you are considering grading.
CAC (see photo below) is as consistent or even more so than NGC and PCGS. But it’s relatively new to the grading game as it initially was founded as a fourth-party grading company, in essence, affirming (or not) grades of PCGS and NGC. One drawback concerns those assembling a set of PCGS or NGC to compete in registry sets. CAC is not there yet but will be in time.
SECOND TIER
Second-tier reliable grading companies include ANACS and ICG. ANACS coins in my view are close to PCGS/NGC in grading. ICG, less reliable.
Older ANACS holders sometimes are rigorously graded, as in this one:
Here is an 1878-S MS64 by ICG (I say MS63 at PCGS):
THIRD TIER
A few other holdering companies are hit-and-miss with a tendency to overstate grades and to overlook flaws. Nevertheless, they are somewhat reliable. I place them in a third tier. I would not submit to these. But I do at times see coins accurately graded. Some, like PCI, were taken over by unreliable companies. Look for old green and yellow PCI holders and SEGS and Numistrust holders. See below. I always look at these coins at auction and rely on my grading ability to affirm their grades. Personally, I like SEGS the best but have spotted common flaws on some of its coins, including pin scratches. So again I inspect rigorously.
BOTTOM TIER
These are some holdering companies I skip right over, not wasting time, because the grades are usually inflated and flaws, overlooked: SCG, National Numismatic Certification, newer PCI, PGA.
Here are examples:
JUST MY OPINION
Keep in mind that this post is based on my opinion and experience. You may think differently, experience different results, and even prefer lower tiers to PCGS and NGC.
But here is a warning if you are buying coins housed in these lower holders: Do not look up the year/date/mint mark on the PCGS or NGC values sites. All grading companies use the Sheldon 70 scale, but different grading standards mean different values. Read this post about that.
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