ACCUGRADE (ACG)

Founded in 1984 by Alan Hager, ACG was one of the first company's to slab coins in a hard plastic capsule. Early on an alpha-numeric grade was assigned with the meaning posted on the back of the holder. I believe they originally used the photoslabs and switched to a smaller size slab without a photo around 1986. For some reason the earlier small size holder had more crude printing than the photoslabs. Also for some reason for a short time ACG was also available as a photo certificate, I've only seen them dated 1986 & 1987 and they appear to be scarce. There are dozens of generations of holders, both the photo type slab and the small slab. I've not found a complete list of generations anywhere or have done much research. My understanding is that ACG grading accuracy was better in the early years but fell off as time went on. As with most defunct TPG's, don't buy the grade, buy the coin or the holder. Accugrade is no longer in business.

BLANCHARD

Blanchard is a bullion and coin company. From about 1986 through 1989 they jumped into the slabbing business. They licensed from ACG the use of their slab design. There are a couple of different rear label styles. These slabs aren't seen very often. Generally grading was fairly accurate.

COMPUGRADE

Compugrade was formed in 1991. They planned to grade coins by computer but went under within a few months.

From Will Rossman who worked there:

"The computer did, indeed, grade coins... sort of! Understanding that every standard has to have a baseline, the goal was for the machine to be as good as human grading, but more consistent. The consistency angle had success on one plane... if you sent in the same coin twice, the computer would recognize its unique data signature and reassign the original grade. First time grading was another thing altogether. One of my colleagues and I graded thousands of silver dollars to establish a baseline for the computer to compare. It then analyzed luster and the location and severity of marks of each subsequent submission and placed the coin on a scale with all of the previous coins graded to assign a grade. Without going into the science, this worked better in theory than practice. There were aberrations. For reasons unknown, a coin that was an obvious 64-65 graded 60. We begged the owner to allow a human quality control function, but he insisted that would destroy the integrity of the program. Instead, it destroyed the whole program. Just as well, as there are core principles that a machine can never duplicate. Grading is an art rather than a science. Beauty cannot not be quantified. Cameras are two dimensional and "see" differently than the human eye. Finally, the acceptable product for the machine was to be within one grade of the former ANACS graders' base 90% of the time. That would get human graders fired anywhere and it got Compugrade fired by the industry."

These slabs are hard to find and carry a high premium.

DAVID HALL FLIPS

Well known coin dealer David Hall, one of the founders of PCGS originally graded coins and sealed them in flips for years before the founding of PCGS. They are scarce, seldom seen and sell for a big premium. There are a number of different styles that were issued over the years, I don't know how many types there are or what generation each is. Below are a few different styles.

DGS (Dominion Grading Service)

Well known coin dealer David Lawrence Rare Coins (DLRC) bought out PCI's equipment in 2008. Dominion Grading Company (DGS) opened in April 2008 accepting submissions as well as grading their own coins. Grading generally considered reasonably accurate. In August 2010 due to lack of demand DLRC closed DGS and sold it to a new owner who re-opened under the PCI name.

HALLMARK

Started in Woburn MA by Q David Bowers and Lee Bellisario in 1987. The company and equipment was sold to PCI in 1991 after they closed that year. Grading generally considered reasonably accurate. Of course like all other services over-grading happened, however I've seen numerous examples that were obviously under-graded as well. Hallmark slabs are becoming scarce and command a moderate premium.

MCCS (Millennium Coin Certification Services)

MCCS was a legitimate service that was around for about two years or so. It started in business about 2004. They used two different slab varieties with the major difference being that the first type did not have the company logo in color, and the companies name was spelled wrong. Millenium. They appear to have been reasonably accurately graded in lower grades but I would not purchase high grade examples unless you are confident in your grading skills. These holders fit in regular slab boxes like PCGS or NGC. These slabs are scarce and generally carry a modest premium.

NCI (Numismatic Certification Institute)

Started by Heritage Rare Coin Galleries, now Heritage Auctions around 1985. Originally issued just as a photo certificate, later the coin could be slabbed in a case alongside the photo cert, starting around 1987. NCI continued in business until at least 1988.

NUMEX

This short lived slab started around 2001. It has been suggested that they leased the holder from Accugrade but I have no evidence of this. Their grading seems to range from accurate to conservative. These are quite scarce and usually command a moderate to high premium.

PCI

Started in 1986 by Chattanooga Coin Company. First holder used was a photo slab, it was used until 1991. In that time they produced 4 generations of the photo slab. In 1991 PCI purchased the equipment and slab from Hallmark grading after they closed. The "new" slab was used for the next 20+ years and through many different owners. Over the years the grading standards declined with some later generations being criminally overgraded. Some periods before ownership changes PCI was out of business only to be again resurrected. It appeared PCI is was out of business for good around 2019/2020 but then holders reappeared in mid 2021 with a crude looking label modeled after the previous generation (gen 10). I believe it is now owned by the owners of Centles. Be very careful when buying PCI. To learn more about PCI generations and what generations should be avoided click here

Thanks for visiting, if you have found my work useful, please consider leaving a tip.