“If you grade a coin MS65, and John grades that same coin MS65, would the marketplace accept it?”
“Sure! They do now…”
“Then why don’t we grade the coins and put them in tamper-evident holders to guarantee grade and authenticity?”
That conversation convinced us that the time was right – and the market was ready – for what I and a few dealer colleagues of mine were about to pitch to the market.
So, we pooled our money and brought PCGS to life.
PCGS Makes the Grade
When we embarked on starting up PCGS, we had every intention of innovating the concept of third-party grading, authentication, and tamper-evident encapsulation at scale. But we weren’t necessarily out to reinvent the wheel on the grading system itself by creating an entirely new and unfamiliar numismatic grading spectrum. By the mid-1980s, Dr. William Herbert Sheldon’s 70-point grading scale, which he publicized in 1948, had been long adopted and embraced by the numismatic hobby at large.
However, we decided to expand and define more points on Sheldon’s 1-70 grading scale. For the circulated grades, we would use Poor 01; Fair 02; About Good 03; Good 04 and 06; Very Good 08 and 10; Fine 12 and 15; Very Fine 20, 25, 30, and 35; Extremely Fine 40 and 45; and About Uncirculated 50, 53, 55, and 58. In the important Mint State grades of 60 through 70, where much of marketplace confusion reigned, something unprecedented was done. We felt expert graders could define more than the commonly used grades of 60, 63, 65, 67. So, we delineated all 11 points on the Mint State scale to include 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, and 70.
In February 1986, several talented member PCGS Authorized Dealers were called in to our humble office to test our system of “consensus” grading. The results were gratifying. Our grading “lines” coincided rather well.
At launch, we had a core group of 32 “charter” member dealers. Vetted and contracted “regular” authorized dealers were also coming on board. Charter members were required to make sight-unseen bids for PCGS coins in some areas of their expertise. At this point in time, coins could only be submitted by our authorized dealer network. The authorized dealers were required to “screen” submissions for counterfeits, damage, PVC, or coins of low value.
As an incentive, in April of 1986, we decided to run a grading special for the month of May: submit any coin for a flat fee of $15.00. This opened the floodgates!
Our list of authorized dealers was growing rapidly, and we were deluged with submissions. By the end of May, we had a backlog of over 100,000 coins. We had to step up our grading and processing.
Another Coin In “The Wall”
Grading was a concerning problem. We called all the graders whose skills were known to us. They were asked to come out to California for a few days, a week, a month, or whatever time they could afford to be away from their businesses and families. They came from all areas of the United States. At one point we had a roster of 38 graders.
To accommodate them, a satellite grading facility was opened. Rented apartments were provided for the out-of-towners. We also purchased two Ford Taurus sedans to shuttle the graders back and forth.
Strict grading rules were established, for all with zero tolerance. We chipped away at the “wall” of coins and, after some months, we were back on an even keel.
With a dozen or so of our “core” graders, we continued grading in our first grading room. The room itself was rather small. The furniture consisted of a conference table that could accommodate six graders, and a smaller table against the wall for a few more. A window had to be blackened out to keep out any ambient light.
Each grader would be given a box of coins by a grading room attendant, from an anonymous submitter. The grader would examine each coin by removing it from its plastic flip onto a velvet pad. Then they would write the grade on a rectangular sticker on the back of the flip. Each grader had an assigned “spot” on the sticker and then the box was passed to the next grader. The box would be graded by three or more graders. The finished box then went to a finalizer, who determined the final consensus grade.
At this point, we started building an instructional grading set, which was required viewing by all before beginning to grade. We also came up with some catchphrases to help graders stay focused. “Think Six” (66). One of our favorites was “Eye Appeal Adds a Little and Forgives a Lot.” We also had this mantra: “58 is not the only grade between 45 and 60.” Our company’s physical confines bursting at the seams, we soon moved to a larger office complex.
Onward & Upward
Right from the start during the early days of PCGS, we were focused on innovation. In 1987, we published the PCGS Population Report, which was later moved to an online format. Soon, our innovative juices would propel us into unknown territory. During the late 1980s, we were expanding into grading world coins – a service we debuted in late 1987. We started with grading the coins of Canada, then Great Britain, then all of Europe, and eventually Asia. The demand for our product necessitated the opening of offices in Paris, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. Our world coin specialists traveled to these venues regularly, and they continue to do so to this day.
All these efforts to expand and enhance our business required us to establish a marketing department, which was especially important in getting the word out to the general (read “nonnumismatist”) public and recruiting local talent. Among these publicity efforts were placing advertisements and articles about our company in the likes of The Wall Street Journal, Orange County Register, and People.
The caption on our ads was PCGS, “The Standard for the Rare Coin Industry.”
Employing visual media was also a big part in the increase of our footprint. Among these early efforts were taping an interview with a PCGS owner at a Hong Kong event in the late 1980s and releasing it to the media, with several United States television stations playing it.
Before long, PCGS was making its way to primetime television. In 1989, PCGS-encapsulated coins made a cameo appearance in a gripping episode of Matlock, a television crime drama series starring versatile actor Andy Griffith. A few years later, PCGS played a starring role in the 1994 comedy Getting Even with Dad, a summertime feature film portraying Cheers star Ted Danson as a conman whose estranged son (Home Alone child actor Macauley Culkin) hides a bounty of stolen PCGS-graded coins as ransom in exchange for quality time with his absentee father.
Encapsulating Success
PCGS moved into the 21st century with a suite of innovations that helped the brand redefine its importance in the numismatic sphere. In 2001, the PCGS Set Registry moved online to become the first numismatic collecting platform of its kind on the internet, allowing collectors around the world to safely share their collections with the world and compete for an ever-expanding variety of awards and recognitions, with some sets entering the venerated PCGS Hall of Fame. By 2008, PCGS was growing CoinFacts to become the largest and most comprehensive online numismatic encyclopedia, and Plus grading awarded truly deserving coins with not just a highly coveted designation but also new opportunities for PCGS Set Registry members and the marketplace at large.
A series of landmark events helped solidify PCGS’s position not only as the trusted third-party coin grading company but also as a leader in numismatic advocacy and education. Collectors Corner gave collectors a place where they could purchase a wide array of coins and other numismatic items from well vetted, highly reputable dealers. PCGS TrueView revolutionized the art and science of numismatic photography, and PCGS Rare Coin Market Report, now PCGS Insider, grew as one of the hobby’s leading publications.
The early 2020s saw the relaunch of PCGS Banknote and immediate market acceptance for the currency service as a leader for the authentication and encapsulation of paper money. The debut of Near-Field Communication (NFC) devices in all new PCGS holders pushed the company ahead of all its rivals as the first and only third-party numismatic grader to utilize the technologically advanced anticounterfeiting measure.
The throes of the COVID-19 pandemic and a widespread return to collectibles hobbies for millions of Americans pushed PCGS to a prolonged period of record growth. PCGS President Stephanie Sabin has overseen continued expansion of the company with a multitude of new services and initiatives both for U.S. and world collectors, and in 2025 led the path toward grading and encapsulating ancient coins, beginning with the historic cash coins of China.
Expansion, innovation, and the creation of new services and market support platforms is how PCGS became the dominant leader in the numismatic world. And as PCGS embarks on its 40th anniversary, expanding, innovating, and creating is exactly what the company will continue to do. PCGS leaders today believe, “If you are not moving forward, you are moving backward.” PCGS will only keep moving forward.