Legend Numismatics, a coin dealer specializing in high-quality, rare U.S. coinage, announced the sale of the entire Sunnywood “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” Toned Morgan Dollar Collection to a private collector who wishes to remain anonymous. Financial details were not released, but Legend spokesperson Laura Sperber acknowledged that it was a “multi-million dollar transaction” and that the collection was sold intact.

The Sunnywood Collection (Circulation Strikes from 1878-1921 including three important varieties) was painstakingly assembled over a period of several years by Douglas Kurz, a long-time collector who is a successful businessman and former concert pianist. Bucking the market trend of preference for “white” Morgan Dollars, he decided to put together a complete set of Morgans with “attractive, original color, at least on the obverse.”

Prominently featured in the PCGS Set RegistrySM (www.PCGS.com/SetRegistry), the Sunnywood Collection, consisting exclusively of PCGS-graded coins, gained additional notoriety at the January 2009 FUN Show, the February and May 2009 Long Beach Expos, and in advertisements in Coin World and other numismatic publications.

One interesting point is that the most attractive pieces in terms of color and eye appeal are not necessarily the highest-graded pieces. Sunnywood strikes a balance between color and technical grade, so Set Registry ranking has sometimes been sacrificed for the sake of overall eye appeal.

Many collectors consider the Sunnywood Collection to be the finest set of toned Morgans ever assembled.

The collection includes many early common dates (between 1878 and 1888) and some later dates (such as 1896, 1899-O and 1904-O) that can be found with dramatic and vibrant multi-colored mint-bag toning. There are many dates, however, that simply do not exist with colorful toning. Those dates were sought instead with attractive original patination (the 1900-S and 1901-S are good examples).

Laura Sperber Comments:

In my mind, this is one collection that should not even exist. When Doug originally approached me about building the set with him, I did not think an all-colored Morgan set that nice was even possible to build. Point blank, I told him not to do it.

As time went on, I watched Doug work on the project. He was gracious enough to let Legend help him add a coin or two to this magnificent set. (more…)

The following is from the PCGS website about Updates to the PCGS Guarantee. This is the first time we know of where one of the major grading services has been so forthcoming as to buybacks under their guarantee, and In Our Optinion, PCGS should be commended for its transparency and openness.

For 24 years we’ve stood behind the service we provide to you not with a money back/fee returned policy if we make a mistake…not with a “we’re sorry, we’ll return your grading fee or give you free grading” policy if we make a mistake…but with an actual cash guarantee for the market value of the coins we grade and authenticate.

They say that talk is cheap and money talks. So when it comes to the validity of the PCGS Grading Guarantee we’ll let the money do the talking. Here are the cold facts about what we’ve done in the past 24 years.

In the past 24 years, PCGS has (as of Dec 1, 2009) graded 18,784,536 coins with a declared value of $19,138,747,536. That’s 18 million coins worth over 19 billion dollars!

In the past 24 years, PCGS has paid out $7,320,437 under the terms of the PCGS Grading Guarantee. When we make a mistake that involves your coins, we pay for our mistake. It’s that simple.

Here are some detailed figures of the money we’ve paid out under the terms of our grading guarantee. The following is the total amount paid in each of the last six calendar years;
2003…$365,525
2004…$222,227
2005…$507,692
2006…$382,384
2007…$562,541
2008…$1,945,755
2009 (thru Dec 1)…$498,798

You’ll note that the cash figures are increasing, but this may be explained by the fact that coins are worth more today than they were in 2003. The huge amount bought back in 2008 was probably a “perfect storm” aberration (January, 2008 was not a good month for PCGS…see below). (more…)

Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS), a division of Collectors Universe, Inc. (NASADQ: CLCT), announces the unveiling of a completely new version of its popular web site, www.pcgs.com. With 3 million page views each month, PCGS.com is one of the most-visited web sites in the entire numismatic field.

The new site represents more than just a face lift. Its cleaner feel and more logical arrangement of links and information make navigation much easier than in the past. “It shouldn’t take regular visitors long to adjust to the new site,” said PCGS President Don Willis. “We’ve designed it to be less cluttered and more intuitive, making it easier for both frequent and newer visitors to find the information they’re looking for.”

With ease of use in mind, PCGS has eliminated the left-side menu and made the most frequently used pages accessible via the main menu bar at the top. The buttons link directly to PCGS Home, Services, Price Guide, Set Registry, PCGS CoinFacts, Resources, PCGS Store and About PCGS.

Underneath these choices, PCGS offers a weekly video and a Product Spotlight to highlight new products and services and provide a snapshot of “What’s New” at PCGS and in the coin industry.

Beneath these features, the user is given the opportunity to navigate by topic. For example, on the far left, new collectors are encouraged to Take the First Step. Under this heading, there are links to everything they need to get started in coin collecting: a New to Coins link takes them directly to the newly updated Start Here page, and links to vital information like why you should have your coins graded and how to obtain ballpark pricing from the PCGS Price Guide.

The last link in that group is to a new PCGS service that will make it immeasurably easier for new collectors to ascertain ballpark values for their coins. “We feel this could be one of the most useful tools ever developed for obtaining coin values,” Don Willis explained. “Once new collectors use CoinFacts to determine what they coin have, they can go to our Online Photograde^™ to at least get an approximate grade.” (more…)