By Justin Heller – Quantify Corp

It has been 9 months since PCGS introduced a new service where any coin submitted for grading would be returned in a PCGS Holder, rather than in a “body bag,” unless the coin has active PVC corrosion, a plugged hole, or fails the authenticity check.

How have these coins performed and priced in the coin market? More than a year has passed since this service was introduced and yet we have not seen any price guides that have reported the results.

RegistryCollector.com has been tracking all certified coins posted and selling on eBay. What follows is an analysis of what is happening in the coin hobby.

The bidding activity on PCGS graded coins on eBay is higher for circulated coins compared with Uncirculated or Proof coins. On average, each PCGS graded items on eBay is receiving 8.5 bids before auction close, across all grades. This bid count for Uncirculated coins is slightly lower with 8.1 bids. Circulated coins have a higher average bid count at 10.8. What is interesting is that coins certified as “Genuine” has a similar auction bid count as Circulated coins at 10.7 bids per item.

RegistryCollector.com is seeing that Flying Eagle Cents (specifically 1857), labeled “Genuine (92 – Cleaned)” are pricing and selling as if they were certified as XF45 are selling for $100 more than Genuine coins with environmental damage or altered surfaces.

RegistryCollector.com has also seen that common date Eagle & Double Eagle coins that are “Genuine (94 – Altered Surface)” are pricing and selling as if they were certified as AU55 and are selling at 3 times the price of Gold Bullion as of 8/20/2009.
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