In their continuing effort to assist collectors and combat the rise of counterfeit coins PCGS is making some adjustments to their submission system effective August 1st 2011.
Secure Plus is a service offered by the Professional Coin Grading Service which includes high tech security features and tougher scrutiny of each coin graded. This service will now become available to economy level submissions and they will now allow "genuine" coins into a secure plus slab. A secure plus submitted coin means it will undergo more vigorous testing by the PCGS graders. It will be photographed and that photo made available on the certificate verification page of the PCGS website. You can see the PCGS image of this 1917m sixpence MS64 matches that of the coin in hand here in this example. Each coin is laser scanned, sniffed (to detect the presence of chemicals or enhancement materials on the coin) and undergoes a metal composition analysis. These measures have been implemented to help PCGS identify if a coin has been slabbed by them before, altered and returned to them for regrading or is a counterfeit example. The photographs available will help collectors see for themselves if they are offered a counterfeit coin or a counterfeit PCGS slabs -an immeasurable boost in consumer confidence. With these measures it is now much more likely that your coin might be recovered if it were stolen. Another change is that because of the problem with Chinese counterfeit coins, PCGS will only accept coins from this country on the Secure Plus service level.
Let's not forget the important grading factor about Secure Plus graded coins is that they undergo more consistent grading and may be awarded a + grade ie. MS65+ giving that coin a potentially much higher value and position in the population report.
Posted by harrisk at June 28, 2011 10:45 AM
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