The official blog of Professional Coin Grading Service
Posted on December 20, 2011 by Ron GuthNo Comments
The following notice appeared in the October 1881 issue of the American Journal of Numismatics. Imagine what such a hoard would be worth today!
To learn more about the New England Shilling, click here.
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Posted on December 14, 2011 by Ron Guth1 Comment
The Numismatist thinks of nothing but rare coins, muses on them, dreams of them.
His enjoyment involves all species of pleasure and mental excitement.
He is a sportsman, a gamester, an artist, a detective, a critic, an expert.
He follows the scent of a rare coin as a hound does that of a rabbit, and is never satisfied till he has traced it to its burrow.
The passions excited are ambition, hope, desire and envy; but never any to an extent to be injurious.
Your true Numismatist is usually a man of gentlemanly instincts, and scholarly attainments. His associations are with men who think, reason, compare, sift evidence, and judge. He is little likely to be gulled, being always on the look-out for counterfeits; still less likely to deceive others, having a wholesome contempt for base fabrication. On the whole, this hobby is one which should be encouraged, because it leads the workings of the mind into proper channels, trains the faculties, and educates and encourages a sound, healthful taste for the aesthetic.
– From “Numismatics As A Hobby” in the American Journal of Numismatics, Vol. 1, No. 10 (New York, February 1867), p. 73.
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Posted on November 18, 2011 by Ron GuthNo Comments
The coin pictured about is a PCGS MS65 1892-O Micro O Half Dollar, the rarest and most desirable of all the Barber Half Dollar varieties. This one is owned by Dr. and Mrs. Peter K. Shireman and resides in their PCGS Registry Set (currently ranked #1).
“Micro O” is an apt name for this variety, as it describes a mintmark that is substantially smaller than normal.
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Posted on November 10, 2011 by Ron GuthNo Comments
A lovely, colorful example of the Proof-only 1879 Trade Dollar, in PR67! Learn more here.
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Posted on November 3, 2011 by Ron GuthNo Comments
Here’s a beautifully toned 1801 Silver Dollar in PCGS MS-64. Learn more here. Pleasant dreams!
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Posted on November 1, 2011 by Ron Guth1 Comment
An exceptional 1829 $5 gold piece from a collection certified by PCGS in October. This exceedingly rare coin is now in a PCGS PR64 holder. You can see larger images of this coin here.
Filed Under: News
Posted on October 27, 2011 by Ron GuthNo Comments
Learn more here
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Posted on October 26, 2011 by Ron GuthNo Comments
The 1851/81 Large Cent — more than an overdate, it’s an 1851 over an inverted 81!
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Posted on October 25, 2011 by Ron Guth1 Comment
I love PCGS CoinFacts. I spend a lot of time adding and editing content on the site. While I’m doing that, I get to see many of the images that have been added to the site. Each week, our photographer, Phil Arnold, adds hundreds (if not thousands) of images to the site. Sometimes the pictures are of coins that come in through the office; other times, we send Phil out to photograph important collections; and sometimes, Phil “sets up shop” at major numismatic conventions because that is often where the great coins are. The result is an accumulation of incredible images that are simply unavailable anywhere else.
Last week I was working on the Condition Census for Large Cents. I was stunned by how many great pictures we have of these extremely rare coins. And, the pictures are amazing in quality, color and detail. The high resolution images leave nothing to the imagination (I like to say that the images are so big you can see the electrons circling the nuclei of the individual atoms — while that’s a stretch, it’s not far from the truth).
When you have a chance, take a tour of the amazing Proof Large Cents on PCGS CoinFacts. Start your tour here.
Have fun!
Filed Under: News
Posted on September 19, 2011 by Ron GuthNo Comments
If you’re a regular visitor to the PCGS Population Report, you’ve probably noticed some new tabs at the head of the home page. These tabs represent updated Population Reports for the countries of France, Germany, and China. What does that mean for you as a collector?
First, you’ll find it a lot easier to navigate through each of those countries to find a particular coin within its proper context. Previously, the collector faced a jumbled mess of different denominations, dates, coins, suffices (PR or MS?) and suffices (BN, RB, RD FN, etc.). In the case of a large country like Germany, it was nearly impossible to find a single coin without typing in the PCGS number, and doing that showed the coin by itself. If you wanted to compare the population of a 1901-A 50 Pfennig to an 1896-A 50 Pfennig (same type), you simply couldn’t do it. Now you can.
Second, completely new organizational structures have been put in place. Mike Sherman built the French Population Report from scratch, and he has done a marvelous job of it. Working with French dealers and expert collectors, Mike built a structure that represents the way that French coins are collected.
Third, we have cleaned up the Pop Reports for these three countries by eliminating duplicates, adding missing coins, and eliminating extraneous coins.
We hope you’ll see these efforts as part of PCGS’ ongoing efforts to support the world market by making it easier for you to understand and collect coins from these countries.
Stay tuned, as we will be adding tabs for more countries and we’ll be cleaning up the countries that make up the “World” tab.
Filed Under: News
