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Why we strongly recommend 3rd party certification
The first thing that should be said is that certification by NGC or PCGS is not a substitute for study and experience. Collectors who want to collect Spanish Colonial issues need to give time and effort to studying the series that interest them. Books like Alan Craig’s monographs on the Florida Collection are an excellent place to begin. Then there are websites such as this one and the 1715 Fleet Society. We leave many sold coins on our site as study material. Collectors need to do their homework.
We have made the commitment to certify the coins offered on our website not tot to encourage collectors to forego study but to protect them. Certification by NGC or PCGS is a cheap insurance policy for beginning collectors. The rise in prices of gold cobs has brought many ex-jewelry, overprocessed, and even counterfeit coins back into the marketplace. Some of these coins have even managed to find venues in major US auctions, much to the chagrin of collectors who thought their auction purchases had to be “good” coins. Not so! Not so at all. An ex-jewelry coin or a coin that has been processed in various ways will always and increasingly be worth significantly less than a coin that NGC or PCGS will certify. Beginning collectors need to know that the expensive coins they are purchasing do not have problems that are not being disclosed to them. Certification by NGC or PCGS is insurance that they do not.
It is very easy for auction houses and dealers to submit coins to NGC or PCGS. The cost is negligible. It is a courtesy to collectors to give them 3rd party assurance that the coins they are buying have no problems. If a seller does not do so, collectors should wonder why. Why is this expensive coin I am being offered not certified if it has no problems? Ask the seller why.
Advanced collectors do not need certification, provided they are fully confident in their ability to spot problem coins. Advanced collectors often prefer to remove their coins from “slabs.” That’s fine. Remove them, but doesn’t it reassure you at the point of purchase to know that a multi-million dollar 3rd party certification service has reviewed the coin and guaranteed that it isn’t a problem coin?
Beginning collectors don’t need to be told to deal with an expert in the series they wish to collect. An expert is someone with a lifetime of experience in the coins they are being introduced to. An expert will help you make wise choices. Slabs are not a substitute for expertise, but again, the combination of dealing with an expert who offers you certified material should make a beginning collector very comfortable that his first forays into areas like Spanish Colonial gold cobs will be safe and fun!
The Gold Cobs Company Carefree, Arizona
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