New features and more than 2,500 additional high-quality coin photos have been added to the all-new PCGS CoinFacts® (www.PCGSCoinFacts.com) since the enhanced web site was launched on July 27. A division of Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS), the site is the Internet’s most comprehensive, one-stop source for historical U.S. numismatic information.

“We’re adding about 250 superb-quality PCGS TrueView images of high-grade coins every week. We’re all very pleased about the response by the collecting and dealing community to the huge expansion of the site,” said Ron Guth, PCGS CoinFacts President.

“In addition to all the photos, we’re also adding new findings and narratives about particular coins written by members of the PCGS CoinFacts Board of Experts, including PCGS Co-Founder, David Hall. It‘s a way for disseminating the accumulated knowledge of veteran numismatists as well as quickly getting out information about new discoveries and new varieties.”

A multi-functional combination of numismatic encyclopedia, historical price guide and reference resources, PCGS CoinFacts is the most extensive repository on the Internet for information about nearly 30,000 United States coins.

Guth explained that the high-quality images help collectors and dealers immediately discern differences in coin varieties, such as large and small dates or lettering. (The accompanying close-up comparison illustration of four varieties of 1823-dated Capped Bust half dollars is an example of the educational convenience and photographic clarity available with PCGS CoinFacts.)
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Discovered by chance, these coins are an important find, being of great historic significance. NGC was pleased to evaluate and provide protection for these great treasures.

NGC recently graded a number of gold Unites of the British monarch James I (1603–1625) from the Chipping Norton Hoard, discovered in the 1980s in an undisclosed location near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England.

The cache contained 59 gold Unites, 54 of which were struck in England and the remaining five from Scotland. It was discovered by chance in an old cellar as workmen excavated a foundation for a new building. Unaware of the significance or value of the find, the coins were given to a builder’s 10-year-old grandson, who kept them in a shoebox for years.

In 2005 the grandson took the coins to an appraisal event where the coins were examined by auctioneers Morton and Eden and the hoard was reported to the British Museum. Since the coins were found before the Treasure Act of 1996, two of the 59 coins were kept by the British Museum and the remaining 57 coins were returned to the owner, who subsequently sold them at a Morton and Eden auction held in London on June 9, 2009.

The hoard is significant because of the large sum of money it comprised at the time the coins were struck. Each of the 59 gold coins had the value of 20 shillings until 1612, and later that value was adjusted to 22 shillings. Records of salaries from the period are scant, but a church clerk might earn the equivalent of two gold Unites during an entire year. In other words, the hoard represented nearly 30 years of earnings. Even the gold bullion value of the hoard — which weighed about 15.5 ounces — is approximately $15,000 in today’s market.
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The Professional Coin Grading Service has established a new category in its popular PCGS Set RegistrySM program, the “Everyman” Collections. No coins graded higher than AU58 can be registered in this category.

“The PCGS Set Registry is home to many of the finest collections ever assembled, but some collectors have stayed away from ‘the classics’ because the costs to acquire Mint State or Proof specimens are prohibitive. So, we’ve created a way for all levels of collectors, entry-level through experienced, to enjoy the fun and competitive nature of the Registry without spending a fortune on Gem Mint State coins,” said BJ Searls, Set Registry Manager.

“Major Registry categories will now have a separate Everyman Collections listing where the highest graded entry will be AU58. With Everyman Collections there’s a good chance your set will rank in the top 20 on the first page, rather than near the bottom of the third or fourth page of that group.”

The Everyman categories now available are:

o Half Cents
o Large Cents
o Small Cents through 1958
o Two Cents, Three Cents and Half Dimes
o Nickels through 1938
o Dimes through 1945
o Twenty Cents
o Quarter Dollars through 1964
o Half Dollars through 1963
o Silver Dollars through 1935
o Non-modern gold coins

Searls also announced a convenient new feature available as part of the “My Set Registry.”
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