Change at PCGS?

[HawkeEye]

I feel like I am seeing a flood of toned coins coming out of PCGS. In the past toned coins seemed to get a lot of scrutiny and many came back N graded.

Now on sites like eBay I am seeing a flood of coins that I think are heat treated or altered in some other way. The TPGs have been somewhat of a firewall against fakes, but it now looks like a lot are being graded.

Am I exaggerating or has the inventory of toned coins suddenly increased?

[RogerB]

I must, sadly, agree with you on both the generalities and the specifics.

[DarksideVAM]

Are you referring to coins housed in the newest PCGS NFC chip slabs, or coins slabbed preceding the newest holders? They still NG all the questionable stuff I send them.

[HawkeEye]

Good question and I will need to be more observant to answer the age question, but if there are a lot of new ones mixed with the old then it can feel like there are many more. I have also had a few N grades but I have shied away from trying to grade Toned coins because of the cost. The coins I am referring to seem to have toning that is unnatural in sequence

[alefzero]

It might be wise for some sellers with questionable ones that were slabbed in the past, before much scrutiny to send them in for reholder and gold shield for faux market credibility.

[morganman]

I am seeing tons more of Toned Artifical Toned Morgans on E bay
especially. Auction houses are receiving huge bids on rainbo toners
PCGS of which about half look Artificial IMHO. What is worst/scary is that
the money paid for some of these is in thousands,

I think some buyers are not aware of what their doing & simply throwing
after what they think/hope is valuable
Seems like PCGS is dropping the ball here- maybe thats part of why i
dont buy or own their stock LOL.

[lured_in_again]

Even though this thread is referring to PCGS graded, I'm tossing out this guys observation.... seems like prices have jumped significantly in the past few months for almost all coins I look at on ebay. Not only seeing more toners (artificial and natural), but also many polished up lower grade coins, especially Morgans, that are bringing "crazy" money. I have seen really nice, uncertified AU Morgans bring less than VF to XF polished up coins. At the same time, certified AU to MS coins have really jumped. Not sure where these buyers are coming from, but might be a good time to sell off a few extras. Just my view from here......

[HawkeEye]

I think the observation on auction prices is spot on and I have seen some crazy prices out there for high grade recognizable VAMs. I bought an unattributed PCGS MS64+ 1881-O VAM 27 that I just got back from PCGS attributed. PCGS lists this one for about $1,500.

PCGS shows that an MS64 sold on eBay in 2021 for $5,750. It is a really nice coin and maybe even undergraded, but $5,750 vs $1,400 is quite a leap of faith. And the MS64 is not toned, mine is. So do I believe the listed price of about $1,500 or some multiple of the $5,750?

Prices are inflated in my opinion but the market is the market, and the greater fool theory always applies. If one has extras maybe this is the time to sell, or do you really want to hold paper dollars right now?