PCGS "Turn-around Time" for Modern U.S. Coins Exceeds Nine Weeks

As a regular user of PCGS grading and certification service, we find the "turn-around time" statistics shown on their website for "Modern" coins (the service we use most often) unsettling, to say the least.  ("Modern" = a 1965 to date coin with a value up to $1000)

PCGS's own standard for "Modern" U. S. coins is 10 business days.  The actual turn-around time reported on their website is 48 business days.  In other words, it is taking PCGS between 9 and 10 weeks from the time the coin is received and entered into their tracking system until it is ready to be shipped back to the customer.  Wow!

Given that the U. S. Mint just began accepting orders on January 29th for its newest commemorative coins (United States Marshals Service Anniversary), will PCGS lose more ground on its service standard as these new coins start arriving? We'll be watching closely in the weeks ahead.

Childhood Treasurer

I grew up on a farm in rural Wisconsin, where the winter nights were long, dark, and cold and where summer days were mostly spent in isolation from other children of my age.  Reading was my first love when it came to filling the time not devoted to farm chores.  Coin collecting also became a hobby that I thoroughly enjoyed.  When I was about eight or nine years old, I started collecting pennies - Lincoln Wheat Pennies to be exact.  When I was nine or ten, I obtained a set of the popular blue Whitman albums.  I diligently searched through pocket change to find the coins to fill each of the holes in my albums.  I also added nickels and dimes to my collection about this time, and obtained a set of Whitman albums for those more valuable and more difficult to come by coins, as well.

When I was about ten or eleven years old, I came into the house from doing chores to find a stranger looking through my collection.  He was a fellow coin collector, making the rounds of the area looking for anything of value.  In my absence, my mother had granted him permission to look through my meager collection, which I silently resented.  He found one Lincoln cent of interest, and offered to buy it from me for forty cents.  Mom encouraged me to sell - if some silly city slicker was foolish enough to pay forty cents for a penny that could be spent for only one cent, why more power to him, she said.  I refused to sell, partly out of resentment that my sacrosanct coin collection had been opened up to a stranger without my permission and partly out of a desire to be able to brag to my friends at school about the ‘rare and valuable coin’ I owned.

Now, the better part of six decades later, I still own that old brown penny.  A couple of years back, I studied it carefully with a coin grading guide open before me.  I felt pretty sure that it was at least a “very fine” grade and possibly even an “extremely fine” penny.  Though I would not have been surprised if a professional would conclude that it was a notch or two lower on the scale of coin quality.  Finally, this autumn, I sent if off to PCGS to obtain a professional grade and certification.  And that was one of the better decisions that I have made in my numismatic career.  

A few days ago, when I checked that status of my grading submission for the umpteenth time, I was thrilled to see that grading had been completed.  There on the PCGS website was my 1924-D Lincoln Cent:  XF45 (extremely fine 45).  The PCGS value guide give a suggested price of $115 for my old penny.  Some have sold for more, and some for less - one sold a few months ago for $154!  Amazing!

So now I’m going to get my old “Mercury” Dimes out of the safe deposit box and take a careful look at them once more.  Perhaps there I have another diamond in the rough hidden among those old coins.  Probably not.  But it will be fun to look through them again after all the years that have passed since I collected them as child.

After a lifetime of collecting coins, I have certainly owned and still own many coins far more valuable than my 1924-D Lincoln Cent - but none of them has given me as much pleasure and satisfaction over the years.  And before you ask: No, it isn’t for sale - not now, and not ever.  

Silver U.S. Quarters for 2013

Lewisville, Texas – Most Americans believe that the U.S. Mint stopped minting silver quarters after 1964.  However, they would only be partially correct.  While not minted for circulation, silver quarters are still being minted each year by the United States Mint at San Francisco.  All of the silver quarters minted are “proof” strikes.  Proof strikes are minted using carefully prepared blanks and special high-pressure coin presses.  The fields (flat areas) on proof coins are polished mirror bright, while the devices (portraits and other design elements) have a frosted finish.  These special processes result in the beautiful cameo (or “deep cameo”) appearance found on proof coins. 

 

The number of silver quarters is tiny when compared to the cupronickel clad quarters minted for circulation.  Using 2011 as an example, the Denver and Philadelphia United States Mint locations together minted approximately 348 million coins for each of the five America the Beautiful Quarter designs issued that year.  At the same time, the San Francisco Mint location minted only 626 thousand silver quarters for each design.  The three factors of silver content, proof strike, and the small number minted result in strong collector and investor demand for silver quarters, and premium pricing.

 

The San Francisco Mint location also mints proof strikes of cupronickel clad quarters.  These are also beautiful and highly collectible coins.  However, the difference in appearance of clad and silver quarters is dramatic.  When compared side by side, the silver proofs are obviously brighter, whiter, and more breathtakingly beautiful than clad proofs.

 

Collectors will want examples of both clad and silver proofs in their collection.  Investors, however, gravitate toward the silver proofs.  The San Francisco Mint location minted approximately 1 million clad proof quarters for each of the five 2011 designs, still a very small number when compared to circulation strikes (also known as, “business” strikes).  The value of the highest quality silver proofs may surprise you.  Those graded PR70DCAM by PCGS (the largest and most respected third party authentication, grading and certification service in the world) may command prices from $50 to $100 each, even for very recent issues. (PR70DCAM is the highest possible grade for any proof coin.  It stands for, Proof 70 Deep Cameo.  Coins are uniformly graded on a scale from 1 to 70.)

 

OK Ranch offers silver proof quarters both “raw” (ungraded) and PCGS graded & certified.  Visit Coins Jewelry & More at www.coinsjewelrymore.com or OK Ranch on ebay at www.okranchcoins.com to see the hundreds of silver proofs offered by OK Ranch Land and Cattle Company.  Or contact OK Ranch by email to shop@coinsjewelrymore.com for more information.