Paper Money Grading Services Question

I am very framiliar with the coin grading services, their history, and
their quality.

I know nothing, however, about Paper Money slabbers. I notice that PCGS
and NGC are getting into the game. Can some give me a brief history of
the grading companies, past and present, that are grading currency?

I will give advice rather than history since
none of the ones before PCGS and NGC
have found serious acceptance with
collectors. Several dealers give praise
to one in particular (they all deal with and have an inventory of notes
slabbed by them,what a surprise).

PCGS and NGC will probably find more
acceptance due to their track record
with coins. There is a lot of speculation
going on right now in certain areas of
the currency market with dealers and collectors buying up raw notes
with the
expectation of cashing in big after they
get them slabbed.

A common 1957 $1 silver certificate
graded MS69 was recently on Ebay
with a starting bid of around $350.

Unslabbed it is probably a $10-$15 item

Proceed with caution.

I am not convinced there is a concensus grading standard for currency.
we all like to think there is one for coins, but as we all know it
shifts around a lot.

A couple people I have talked with that collect currency are less than
thrilled with the existing services, feeling they tend to overgrade the
bills, and don't disqualify for hole patching, ironing, and other
repairs. Apparrently, "fixing" such defects in currency is a common
problem in collecting these items. I have also been told that
encapsulating bills in a case makes it far more difficult to determine
if the bills have been worked on. I gather that actual tactile
feedback of the bill is an important part of being able to determine if
the bill has not been worked on.

Persoanlly, I just do not know enough about such things to make a
judgement about them, but I do not see the existing bill slabbers as
especilly reliable, based on comments from people who know far more
than I do (but that does not necessarily make them experts).

I would tend to believe that if NGC or PCGS got into the business in a
serious way that they would do so in a way that was acceptable to the
mainstream dealer population, which is the market they serve. If the
mainstream dealer community accepts slabbed bills that have been ironed
or repaired, they probably will slab them that way, probably without
mentioning it on the label, much as they will slab cleaned, fixed, and
dipped coins today without mentioning it, if it is done in an
"acceptable" way. My guess is if the repair is evil enough they
probably will not slab it, much as they do with coins today.

I suspect this might add a level of security for some currency
collectors, and increase the saleability of the bills, the same as it
does for slabbed coin today. Whether the currency collectors will
accept it as coin colelctors have is another thing. Keep in mind that
when coin slabbing started, it was by no means accepted nor mainstream.
I would have to guess that except for the huge boom in slabbed coins
that the coin investment portfolios of the 80s coin mania brought
about, coin slabbing probably would not be as big a deal today as it is.

There has been so much "processing" of currency over the years before
slabbers got interested in this
area that it is going to be a big issue as to how
they are going to deal with it.

Right now PCGS and NGC seem to be rather coy
as to how they are going to approach the issue.

My best guess is they are not going to indicate
anything on the slab as to the note having had
"work" done on it but might downgrade the note
a bit depending on how noticable the repairs are.

I do not believe they will reject outright a note
that has been worked on since the practice has
been so widespread over the years (a number of
well known dealers have employed a certain
person who is an absolute expert in processing
notes to look better and she has done thousands
of notes). This is sort of a dirty little secret in
the paper money hobby that most of them would
rather not talk about.

On 9 Jun 2005 05:50:09 -0700, "
wrote:

I am not convinced there is a concensus grading standard for currency.
we all like to think there is one for coins, but as we all know it
shifts around a lot.

A couple people I have talked with that collect currency are less than
thrilled with the existing services, feeling they tend to overgrade the
bills, and don't disqualify for hole patching, ironing, and other
repairs. Apparrently, "fixing" such defects in currency is a common
problem in collecting these items. I have also been told that
encapsulating bills in a case makes it far more difficult to determine
if the bills have been worked on. I gather that actual tactile
feedback of the bill is an important part of being able to determine if
the bill has not been worked on.

Also, the smell of the note.
Aram.

snip