How to use a PCGS price guide for coins

The PCGS, or Professional Coin Grading Service, began in 1985 and has since graded more than 20 million coins. Their website lists over 15 million historic coin prices and gives consumers great information on the market. They put out a price guide of average dealer asking prices so that consumers can readily grade and check value of their personal stock. For more thorough grading, the coins can be graded from the PCGS directly.

Meaning of the listings

The guidebook will list average dealer asking prices by the grade of the coin. These are prices that are gathered through sources like trade papers, websites, and auctions. Coin shows also are sources of the information available. While it is a coin guide book and not specific to the actual value, it is a great starting point to help you value and price your coins. The PCGS website The PCGS website, along with pricing and grading information, also has listings for the coin market summary, the top price changers, and the auction realisations of pricing and selling. These are great resources to see how the market is for the coin you are interested in either selling or purchasing. Hence, a well-informed buyer/seller is the best for PCGS.

Grading

There are 70 grading steps in the PCGS standard that are listed for coin buyers and sellers. Along with that list of 70, ranging from PO-1 “identifiable date and type” to MS/PR-70 “as struck, with a full strike”, there are other grades. There can be suffixes attached to the grade to clarify it by colour, strike, surface, finish, or position. There can be problem coins that will get a 'no grade' mark. These are typically coins that are inconclusive or ineligible. More about these coins can be found on their website.

Rare coins in the market

Rare coins value is a volatile market and can change daily. There are many things that can affect this coin price. There can also be variances between US coin value and value in other countries. There can be severe short-term price swings and coin worth fluctuations. Some things that can influence pricing are the grade of the coin, the price of materials at the time of grading, and supply/demand.