Coin collecting is the collecting of coins or other forms of minted legal tender. Coins of interest to collectors include beautiful, rare, and historically significant pieces. Collectors may be interested, for example, in complete sets of a particular design or denomination, coins that were in circulation for only a brief time, or coins with errors. Coin collecting can be differentiated from numismatics, in that the latter is the systematic study of currency as a whole, though the two disciplines are closely interlinked.
Coin grading is the process of determining the grade or condition of a coin, one of the key factors in determining its collectible value. A coin's grade is generally determined by six criteria: strike, preservation, luster, color, attractiveness, and occasionally the country/state in which it was minted. Several grading systems have been developed. Certification services professionally grade coins for tiered fees.
Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) is an American third-party coin grading, authentication, attribution, and encapsulation service founded in 1985. The intent of its seven founding dealers, including the firm's former president David Hall, was to standardize grading. The firm has divisions in Europe and Asia, and is owned by parent company Collectors Universe. PCGS has graded over 42.5 million coins, medals, and tokens valued at over $36 billion.
Certified Guaranty Company, also known as CGC, is a Sarasota, Florida comic book grading service. CGC is an independent member of the Certified Collectibles Group of companies. It is the first independent and impartial third party grading service for comic books.
The 1913 Liberty Head nickel is an American five-cent piece which was produced in extremely limited quantities unauthorized by the United States Mint, making it one of the best-known and most coveted rarities in American numismatics. In 1972, one specimen of the five cent coin became the first coin to sell for over US$100,000; in 1996, another specimen became the first to sell for over US$1 million. A specimen was sold for US$3 million in a 2004 private sale, then resold for US$3.7 million at a public auction in 2010.
First strike is a marketing term used by third party coin grading services which refers to coins which were struck first by a mint. The U.S. Mint maintains that there is no widely accepted and standardized numismatic industry definition of First Strike coins. Several coin grading companies have decided that a "first strike" coin is one that shipped from the mint in the first month of the new minting.
Third-party grading (TPG) refers to coin grading & banknote grading authentication, attribution, and encapsulation by independent certification services.
International Coin Certification Service (ICCS) is a Canadian third-party coin certification company located in Toronto, Ontario. ICCS certification consists of grading, authentication, grade qualification, variety attribution, and other determinations. ICCS grades most world coins but is particularly known for grading Canadian dollars.
Certified Acceptance Corporation (CAC) is a Far Hills, New Jersey third-party coin certification company started in 2007 by coin dealer John Albanese. The firm evaluates certain numismatically valuable U.S. coins already certified by Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) or Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS).
The Classic Head $2.50 gold coin is an American coin, also called a quarter eagle, minted from 1834 to 1839. It features Liberty on the obverse and an eagle on the reverse.
Kenneth Edward Bressett is an American numismatist. He has actively promoted the study and hobby of numismatics for over 50 years. His published works on the subject cover a wide range of topics and extend from short articles to standard reference books on such diverse areas as ancient coins, paper money, British coins and United States coins.
The Sheldon Coin Grading Scale is a 70-point coin grading scale used in the numismatic assessment of a coin's quality. The American Numismatic Association based its Official ANA Grading Standards in large part on the Sheldon scale. The scale was created by William Herbert Sheldon.
Michael "Miles" Standish was an American businessman, author, rare coin expert, sports memorabilia expert and philanthropist. He was a co-founder of Collectors Universe and served as vice president of the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC).
Collectors Universe Inc. is an American company formed in 1986, now based in Santa Ana, California, which provides third-party authentication and grading services to collectors, retail buyers and sellers of collectibles. Its authentication services focus on coins, trading cards, sports memorabilia, and autographs. The company reached the combined total of 75 million certified collectibles in 2019. Collectors Universe is also a publisher in fields relating to collecting.
Spink & Son is an auction and collectibles company known principally for their sales of coins, banknotes and medals. They also deal in philatelic items, wine and spirits, and other collectible items.
The Great Kentucky Hoard is a hoard of more than 700 gold coins unearthed in an undisclosed part of Kentucky, United States, in the 2020s by a man on his own land. The finder of the hoard has remained anonymous.
Coin slab is a type of holder for a coin. Slabbed coins are typically from one of the coin grading companies. The practice of sending coins to third-party grading companies and then "slabbing" them began in 1986.
The 1893-S Morgan dollar is a United States dollar coin struck in 1893 at the San Francisco Mint. It is the lowest mintage business strike Morgan dollar in the series. The 1893-S is considered to be a key date in the Morgan dollar series: examples of the coin in both mint state and in circulated condition are valuable.
