Change may be in the air at one or more coin grading services, but dealers, collectors and investors will find business as usual at Certified Acceptance Corp. (CAC).

That’s the company’s message to the hobby in the wake of reports that at least one of the two largest grading services is considering the establishment of “premium-quality” grade designations.

CAC examines and evaluates coins that have been certified by either the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) or the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation of America (NGC). It then affixes a distinctive green sticker to the holder of each coin which, in its judgment, fully merits the grade that was assigned. Each sticker incorporates a tamper-evident hologram.

According to Albanese, CAC will continue to evaluate submissions, and determine whether to award stickers to those coins, strictly in the context of the basic numerical grades assigned by either PCGS or NGC. He said it will disregard any additional descriptive words or symbols.

“We don’t want buyers and sellers to get the impression that by stickering a coin, CAC is confirming someone else’s ‘PQ’ designation,” Albanese said.

CAC makes a market in coins that it has stickered, and its disregard of PQ-type designations will be reflected in its buying and selling prices.

“For example, CAC’s bid price for an 1892-O Barber quarter graded MS65 is $1,150,” Albanese said. “If the coin was graded PQ and had a CAC sticker, our buy price would remain the same – $1,150. If it had a star plus our sticker, we’d still pay $1,150. And if it came with an asterisk or a rainbow or a halo, we’d still pay $1,150 – as long as it had a sticker.”

Since opening for business in late 2007, CAC has received more than 144,000 submissions from member dealers and collectors, and has awarded green stickers to just over 68,000 of these. The declared insurance value of these coins totals about $800 million.

To date, the company has bought and sold CAC-stickered coins with a wholesale trading volume of nearly $150 million.
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In three sessions, Wednesday-Friday, April 7-9, 2010

As usual our latest Treasure Auction is full of surprises, but this time we feel it is also very well balanced across many fields, with more general world coins than ever before. Here are some highlights:

In great deference to the Sedwick patriarch, for the first time ever we are offering selections from the Frank Sedwick study collection of 1715-Fleet gold cobs, including plate coins from past editions of the Practical Book of Cobs and other pieces never seen or offered for sale, coins that the pioneering “Dr. Cobs” kept as the best examples among thousands that passed through his hands.

The unique opportunity to own a “Frank Sedwick” specimen will start in this auction with just two 1715-Fleet masterpieces: The finest-known Lima 4 escudos 1711 and one of the best Lima 8 escudos 1712 ever offered.

In the same category of quality as Frank Sedwick’s 1715-Fleet gold cobs is a choice Cuzco cob 2 escudos 1698, a plate coin in Marty Meylach’s classic book Diving to a Flash of Gold.

But perhaps most intriguing in the gold cobs this time is a 1715-Fleet Mexican 1 escudo that was flown aboard Apollo 14 in 1971, the only one of its kind. Before this specially engraved coin came to us, we had no idea that the Apollo astronauts included genuine shipwreck treasure in their “flown” souvenirs on their trips to the moon, but apparently the link between NASA and the Real Eight Co. was more than just geographic. We have come to understand that medallions made of 1715-Fleet silver flown to the moon are very hot with space collectors, who will no doubt go crazy for this genuine coin as well, but perhaps the treasure collectors will win out in the end.

Highlights in shipwreck silver coins include large offerings of lion daalders from the Campen (1627), Potosí cobs from the Consolación (1681) and the Boticaria site of the 1681 Fleet off Panama (first-ever offering, also with some artifacts, with updated history), and hundreds of choice (and some interestingly shaped) 1715-Fleet Mexican cobs from the estate of Karl H. Goodpaster (Real Eight Co. conservator), as well as hundreds of Mexican cobs from the Rooswijk (1739). The Goodpaster collection in particular will be fun to watch, as nothing is hotter today than Fleet silver cobs! (more…)

Two of the finest-known gold 1804 eagles have been added to the Museum Showcase at the 2010 ANA National Money Show™ in Fort Worth. The coins are part of the renowned Harry W. Bass Jr. Collection of American gold coins, and are on display at the ANA’s Edward C. Rochette Money Museum in Colorado Springs.

The Mint began producing gold eagles ($10 coins) in 1795. Production of the coins ceased in 1804 due to a shortage of gold and a perceived lack of need for the denomination. The 1804 eagle thus became famous for being the last coin for the type, and the last eagle struck for circulation for over thirty years. The estimated number of survivors, including the one on display in Fort Worth, is thought to be 80-100 pieces, all from one die pair, of which a considerable number have been damaged.

A twist was added to the story in between 1834 and 1835, when restrikes of 1804 gold eagles and silver dollars were minted by special order of President Andrew Jackson as diplomatic gifts to a king, two emperors and a sultan. Since the last time that silver dollars or gold eagles had been produced was in 1804, the Mint created new dies for the coins and struck them as proofs. There are four known 1804 proof eagle restrikes, including the one on display in Fort Worth; these coins have been nicknamed the “King of Eagles.”

The ANA National Money Show is one of the premier coin shows in the country, and features more than 500 ANA-member dealers; a Museum Showcase with numismatic rarities from the Smithsonian Institution, ANA Money Museum and private collections; a wide array of educational programs; fascinating exhibits created by ANA members; and a $1 billion display by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. For more information, visit www.nationalmoneyshow.com or call 719-482-9857.

The show is at the Fort Worth Convention Center and is open to the public from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. Admission is $6 daily and free for ANA members and children 12 and under.
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