PCGS's Big One Is A Big Deal

This week, the Professional Coin Grading Service announced “The Big One,” a service called PCGS Secure Plus.™ A new service line that will be an option for most collectors except for rare and ultra rare coins which must be certified by PCGS Secure Plus. The significant part of this service is that PCGS is adding modern computer imaging to coin grading.

Coins grade through Secure Plus will be scanned by an optical device that will map the surface of the coin creating a digital signature of its characteristics that can be used for later reference. The digital signature is a unique identification of the coin that can withstand potential coin doctoring and to prevent the users from removing the coin from the slab to try to have it graded higher. It can also be used to determine if the coin was doctored from its previous submission such as being artificially toned.

During the announcement PCGS President David Hall (videos Part 1 Part 2) said that this should end “gradeflation” as well as work out errors in the population reports when people submit coins multiple times. Hall said that multiple submissions did not serve the industry and hope that this would end the practice. Hall noted “We did not start PCGS to grade a coin 40 times.”

Hall said that PCGS has been working on this service for two years with “industry leaders” who were not mentioned. However, in the follow up presentation by PCGS CEO Don Willis (videos Part 3 and Part 4), his technical explanation included an image of the CoinSecure, Inc. to use the CP16 CoinAnalyzer. During his part of the announcement, Willis said that the process is being patented.

CoinSecure, Inc. is a Palo Alto, California based company whose president is Richard M. Haddock. Haddock is the former CEO of the LaserCard Corporation, a company specializing in secure identity solutions that include difficult to counterfeit identification cards and the technologies to detect counterfeit cards. A search of patent records at the World Intellectual Property Organization shows that Haddock has been awarded 16 international patents for various types of optical-related work including for security-related devices. Patents pending for Haddock and CoinSecure are as follows:

	Application Number	Title
1.	20100039818	Numismatic Storage Container To Prevent Counterfeiting Of Coinage
2.	20090303478	Apparatus For Producing Optical Signatures From Coinage
3.	20090296365	Calibrated And Color-Controlled Multi-Source Lighting System For Specimen Illumination
4.	20090295912	Coin Edge Imaging Device
5.	20090286458	Self-Centering Loading, Indexing, And Flipping Mechanism For Coinage And Coin Analysis
6.	20090284754	Method For Optically Collecting Numismatic Data And Associated Algorithms For Unique Identification Of Coins

As part of the PCGS Secure Plus workflow, coins will be imaged using the CP16 CoinAnalyzer and the data saved in an internal database. Will said that once the coin is imaged, it will go through the normal grading process where it will be reviewed by three graders before being reviewed by a finalizer. Only the finalizer will have access to the digital information and will take appropriate actions.

The Plus
As part of the announcement, PCGS said that it will mark premium quality coins for its grade with a plus as part of the grade. When Willis made the announcement, he said that PCGS has been experimenting with a 700 point grade scale to score a coin based on its technical grading and eye appeal. Coins that grade in the upper end of the grade range will receive the plus. As Hall noted, this will “unlock the value” of better quality coins. Plus grades will be available for grades XF45 through MS68 except for MS60 and MS61.

The plus designation was announced in conjunction with Numismatic Guaranty Corporation. This service will only be available for selected classic series and not planned for modern issues.

More Plus at CCE
As part of the plus designation announcement, Collector’s Universe, the parent company of PCGS, announced that their Certified Coin Exchange market place will offer sight unseen bidding for plus grade coins. Sight unseen bidding means that purchasers will not be allowed to return a coin after auctions through the exchange. Since CCE is an exchange for dealers, it will be interesting to hear what those dealers think of this policy.

An Additional Plus
One understated announcement is that PCGS has updated their holder and added new anti-counterfeiting features to the label. Coins graded as part of the Secure Plus service will be placed in a holder that has a label with a shield. The shield will be printed with a color shifting ink that makes it difficult to duplicate. Color shifting ink is similar to the technologies that are being used on US Federal Reserve Notes. Also, Willis announced that microprinting will appear behind the shield.

Microprinting prevents the vast majority of imaging technologies from being able to duplicate the label. However, PCGS should provide a guideline as to what to look for so that collectors can verify the labels of the coins they buy.

Having been an advocate for computer based grading, this is a great start to using technology to assist in grading. Add the ability to digitally fingerprint the coin to prevent coin doctoring and crackout artists from resubmitting the coins multiple times hoping for better grades, PCGS has created “The Big One” in the world of third party grading.

US Mint Unveils First Five Coins in America the Beautiful Quarters Program

First Coin in Series to Be Released into Circulation on April 19

WASHINGTON (adapted from the US Mint press release)—The US Mint unveiled the designs for the first five quarters in the America the Beautiful Quarters Program in a special ceremony today at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. US Mint Director Ed Moy treated special guests and the media to a first look at the new designs, which celebrate the spectacular natural wonders that are found in the United States’ national parks, forests, shores and other national sites. Other speakers included Congressman Mike Castle, one of the lead co-sponsors of the legislation; United States Treasurer Rosie Rios; Harris Sherman, Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and the Environment; and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.

The first quarter in the series, which honors Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, will be released into circulation on April 19, with an official launch ceremony in Hot Springs on April 20. It will be followed by quarters honoring Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming (to be released in June), Yosemite National Park in California (July), Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona (September), and Mount Hood National Forest in Oregon (November).

The following is the video from the introduction of the designs at the Newseum along with interviews and B-Roll footage.

America the Beautiful Quarters Designs

Click to Image to Enlarge
1. The image on the reverse of the Hot Springs National Park quarter depicts the façade of the Hot Springs National Park headquarters building with a fountain in the foreground. The headquarters was built in the Spanish colonial revival style and completed in 1936. The National Park Service emblem is featured to the right of the door.


2. The image on the reverse of the Yellowstone National Park quarter features the Old Faithful geyser with a mature bull bison in the foreground.


3. The image on the reverse of the Yosemite National Park quarter depicts the iconic El Capitan, which rises more than 3,000 feet above the valley floor and is the largest monolith of granite in the world.


4. The image on the reverse of the Grand Canyon National Park quarter features a view of the granaries above the Nankoweap Delta in Marble Canyon near the Colorado River. Marble Canyon is the northernmost section of the Grand Canyon. Granaries were used for storing food and seeds (A.D. 500).


5. The image on the reverse of the Mount Hood National Forest quarter depicts a view of Mount Hood with Lost Lake in the foreground.

Each coin in the series features a common obverse (heads side) with the 1932 portrait of George Washington by John Flanagan, which has been restored to bring out subtle details and the beauty of the original model. Inscriptions are UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST and QUARTER DOLLAR.

For more information on the America the Beautiful Quarters Program, please visit www.americathebeautifulquarters.gov.

Learning through the America the Beautiful Quarters Program
The America the Beautiful Quarters Program will also introduce a brand new lesson plan format with a series of interactive educational tools for students from kindergarten through high school. Students will be able to take a virtual visit to the national sites highlighted each year and have the opportunity to learn about forest communities and the plants and animals that live in our national parks and sites. For more information about America the Beautiful Quarters Program educational resources, please visit www.usmint.gov/?action=educators.

National Park Quarters Media Event in DC

A public relations firm sent out a media alert announcing that the US Mint will unveil the designs for the first five quarters in the America the Beautiful Quarters Program. The program that begins this year is a new multi-year initiative honoring 56 national parks and national sites in each state, the District of Columbia and the five US territories and will run through 2021.

The media event will be held Wednesday, March 24, 12:00 noon at the Newseum in Washington, DC (map). The event will feature US Mint Director Ed Moy unveiling the new designs of the first five quarters in the program and a video of the featured national sites showcasing the natural and historic significance of the first five quarters.

Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas will be first quarter and will be released on April 19 to be followed by Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming (to be released in June), Yosemite National Park in California (July), Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona (September), and Mount Hood National Forest in Oregon (November).

Additional featured speakers scheduled include US Treasurer Rosie Rios, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and Dayton Duncan the writer and co-producer of the Ken Burns documentary The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.

This may be a media-only event and not open to the public. If you are going to be near the Newseum on March 24, it might be worth trying to attend. Besides, the Newseum is one of the great museums in Washington and worth the time to visit.

Review: An Ultimate Coins Game for iPhone (with update)

Somewhere in my travels across the Internets, I found out about the iPhone game An Ultimate Coins Game by Flavio Passa, an Argentina-based developer. It seemed like a cute concept, a matching-like game based on coins. So the numismatist and iPhone time waster in me thought the 99-cents price tag was a reasonable price to give the game a try.

Starting the program yielded two issues: Sound effects cannot be controlled or muted within the program and the instructions are sparse and must be read on the programmer’s time frame. Beginning with the sound effects, the noises are not optional. Sounds cannot be turned off and the only way to control the volume is using the iPhone’s volume. The problem is that when controlling the volume on the iPhone it affects the the volume of the ringer. When I turned down the volume for the game I missed a later telephone call when the ringer was too low to hear from my jacket pocket. It would benefit the iPhone user to be able to control the sound effects as an option that would include turning off the sound effects without using the iPhone controls.

One issue with using the iPhone is reading on a small screen. In addition to the small screen, the stylized text some applications use on the small screen and trying to use the a new program can make reading a help screen difficult. While reading the instructions for An Ultimate Coins Game I was surprised when they disappeared! Rather than having a “back” button or some other mechanism to allow me to finish reading the instructions, the developer decided decided how much time I can use to read the instructions. I use the iPhone’s ability to easily take a screen shot to capture the instructions so I can read them at my own pace. This is something that the developer should fix.

Unfortunately, the instructions does not tell you everything. For example, for the collecting coins by type level, I discovered that if I was able to find three coins without moving other coins I would receive a bonus. There may be other bonus opportunities, but I could not find this documented.

Another omission is that for the levels that has piled coins, you can shake the iPhone to move the coins around. Unfortunately, shaking the iPhone does not move the coins around enough to be useful. This feature would be more useful if the coins were re-stacked or reordered on the screen.

The game has three sub-games called levels: Collecting Coins where you double-tap on the coins of the type asked for before the level begins; Tag Price where you collect coins from the pile that add up to the amount shown on the price tag; and Country Flag where you match the coin to the flag of the country it is from. All three “levels” are fun. I like the concepts in the game but there are problems. First, more than once in the Tag Price level I could not reach the tag price because the coins were not available. One time I was not provided a Canadian 5-cent piece or enough Canadian 1-cent coins in order to make the required amount. In several other cases, I was not given enough 1-cent or 1-pence coins to make the price.

Within the Country Flag level, I found several cases where two of the same flags were presented for a coin. In one case, I had to pick the right Australian flag to get credit for the coin. If I chose the wrong flag, I would be told that I was wrong.

One thing that drove me crazy is that when a level was finished, the game switched to its scoreboard instead of giving me a second to admire my work or a “continue” button to let me proceed when I am ready. I know this is a nit, but playing a game is a bit of ego boost and I want my ego boost! Also, give me the option to admire the scoreboard between levels before going to the next level. Aside from being allowed to boost my ego, this will give me a chance to pause the game in case something else needs my attention.

Although it is not documented, the game becomes more difficult with each level. But the levels are not consistent. It is possible to play two straight levels of type matching before playing a level of Price Tag. Difficulty increases with each type level and not what others would consider a level. This means I can play three progressively more difficult levels of Collecting Coins before seeing the first level Price Tag. Other times, I could see several levels before seeing one level of Country Flag. In fact, I do not remember ever seeing a level of Country Flag before playing five levels of the other two.

Two future enhancements that would help the game would be a high score keeper and a mechanism to save a game in the middle.

Overall, the issues seem to be those of a programmer not experienced with developing iPhone games. That is not a problem because we do not learn without trying. I believe that the programmer made an above average effort and hope that my comments help.

I do not regret buying this game. It has tremendous potential and can be addicting. I give the game a grade of EF-45 with hopes that future editions will improve.

NOTE (updated 3/18): I have been conversing with Flavio Passa, the program’s author, about the review. Mr. Passa agrees with most of what I wrote and will be working on an update for version 1.2. However, Mr. Passa disagrees with my review on the Tag Price level. Mr. Passa wrote to me and said:

In the Tag Price Level, there is always a way to match the tag price shown. Believe me, in fact tag price is built based on coins available during the level, it sumarizes the odd coins as they appears on the screen to build the tag price, therefore there is always a way to match the tag price amount.

It may be possible that Mr. Passa is correct but I have not been able to verify it. Regardless, it does not materially change my review. I continue to play the game and continue to believe that it has a lot of potential. I do appreciate Mr. Passa writing to me about his program and promise to re-review it following the next release.

Numismatics Meet Multi-Level Marketing

Over the last few months I have been receiving invites to join Numis Network. Numis Network is a multi-level marketing (MLM) program whose primary purpose seems to have people recruit a network of other interested people and have them join the network. There is a fee to join and a commission that is paid up the organization chart as new members join.

Multi-level marketing goes under many names: network marketing, direct selling, referral marketing, and pyramid selling. Regardless of the name, it is a marketing scheme where the structure creates a marketing and sales force through the use of compensating promoters for selling products but creating additional distributors. The multiple levels creates a type of pyramid where those closer to the top of the pyramid makes the most money. Numis Network exhibits all of the characteristics of an MLM scheme. It emphasizes the network, growing the network, and receiving commission from the network.

It is important to note that a MLM scheme is not the same as a Ponzi scheme (which is what Bernie Madoff did) since there is supposed to be real marketing behind the network. In the case of Numis Network, they try to keep this scheme on this side of legal by touting their compensation is derived from the sales of certified coins. Numis Network uses a binary plan to grow the network using two subtrees, a power leg, which has new members, and the profit leg, which has your direct recruits. The key is supposed to be that your profit leg provides your best chance to make money. However, I found the following in Wikipedia:

In truth this benefit is slight because the new members who are recruited by your ancestors are shared among all the available leaf nodes. For example, your immediate ancestor in the tree only puts half of his new recruits in your downline, on average. Likewise, his ancestor only puts one fourth of his recruits in your downline. Following this argument to the root of the tree, the total approaches just one person recruiting for your downline (1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + 1/32 + ... + 1/2n, where n is your tree depth). This is often insignificant in comparison to the number of people required in your downline to make yourself profitable.

If you calculate the amount of compensation per person diminishes as the number of downline people increases. In order to make money, you would need to recruit quite a few people and have them buy and/or sell coins in order for you to make a profit.

The only people making money in a MLM scheme are those at the top of the overall pyramid—the root node. Not only are they making money on the your initial purchases, but they are collecting on the commissions from the new recruits, which they earn a share of every one of them since they are at the root of the scheme. Remember, they are also the ones selling the coins. Once you buy the coins to resell, they have made their profit and it is up to you to sell the coins at a higher profit in order to earn a large enough commission.

Most of the people who have sent an email note asking me to join will probably never see a profit. I hope they can earn back their original investment.

While it is legal to create a pyramid scheme whose compensation is based on a real sales commission, the truth of the matter is that the further you are away from the top of the pyramid, the less money you will make. And think about it, how many coins would you have to sell to make a profit and how many coins could be sold? How many coins will you have to sell in order to break even after spending $500 (for the Fast Track Collector’s Kit) or the $75 (Basic option) plus the $9.95 per month for the Numis Network ecommerce website? Think about how the premiums on bullion coins have lowered as the US Mint has raised the supply then ask yourself if there are enough interested customers out there to even sustain the effort.

Since Numis Network is located in Tampa, Florida you may want to familiarize yourself with the well written advice from Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum. If there are any questions, you may want to contact Attorney General McCollum’s office for assistance.

While Numis Network may technically be legal I question its ethics. It is something I would never be involved with. If someone were to ask me for advice I would suggest that you not involve yourself with this program.

Stories on Today's Odd Denomination Coins

Normally, I do not make it a practice to post stories that are sent to me but I think I can relate to what this correspondent wrote. Reader Troy Brown wrote:

Remember the Taco Bell $2 bill story? Well today I was reliving it at Wendy's with a few Kennedy Half Dollars! After a day of searching for 40% & 90% silver halves I took a few to the gas station then a few more to get some lunch. When I tried to pay for lunch at the local Wendy's with a few half dollars the casher told me that she didn't know if they could accept the coins. She then went to the other casher who took the halves to the manager. After a few minutes (and after the food was made sitting in front of me) I was told that they could not accept the money. I asked why and the cashier said because her manager said she couldn't. With the line growing longer I asked, "so with all the starving people in the world you would rather throw away this food and not take the money?” She replied, "it's not me, it's my boss". They then told me, "take the money to the bank and come back". Really, you want me to spend my money here? I ended up at KFC where they took the money.

Troy wrote that he called Wendy’s corporate offices who said that they will look into the situation.

Today I went to a Subway sandwich shop near where I am working. When I went to pay for my “Five Dollar Foot-Long” I handed the cashier a five dollar bill and a 2010 Native American $1 coin to cover the sales tax. The cashier looked at the coin and I asked if there was a problem. She said that she cannot take foreign money. I showed her where it said “United States of America” and “$1” on the reverse. She was so afraid of taking the coin that I switched my payment to a $20 bill to pay for my lunch. I will not be calling Subway’s corporate offices. I am not sure Jared is interested!

As part of the Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005 (Pub. Law 109-145 [pdf]) told the US Mint to research how the one-dollar coins could gain more acceptance and for the US Mint to launch an education campaign along with the new coins. Not only is it clear that the education process failed, but the research lead to same conclusion everyone else has made using reason: if you want the one-dollar coin to be more accepted, stop printing the one-dollar Federal Reserve Note. This is why I wish I could take members of congress out to lunch in the real world so they could see the failures of their actions first hand.

On Wastweet Appointment to CCAC

Over the last week, it was announced that Heidi Wastweet of Seattle, Washington was appointed to the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee as a specialist in medallic sculpture. Wastweet is an accomplished artist whose credits include the design of many medals, the founder of the Seattle Sculpture Guild, and a member of FIDEM.

There have been other articles about Wastweet’s biography. I want to focus on her work. To visit her website gallery it is clear that she can be best described as an awesome artist! From bonze sculptures to commissioned medals, I click on every image and am just in awe of her work. Wastweet created a fantasy piece of what could be my favorite allegedly non-coin, the 1964-D Peace Dollar (seen here).

Of Wastweet’s sculptures, I was most intrigued by the her “Tribute to Auguste Rodin,” a study of Rodin’s Gates of Hell created for a private collector. Having only read about Rodin’s sculpture in Paris, I am intrigued by her work and the imagery that Wastweet used to create her work.

After visiting her virtual gallery with mouth agape, I can only say that Wastweet may be on the wrong side of the table. Maybe she should be creating the artwork instead of judging them. I see Wastweet’s addition as a good move for the CCAC and hope she can provide valuable input to the designs of US coins.