Numistify guide
How to Send Coins for Grading
Choosing a service, filling in the form, and keeping track of coins while they are out of your hands.
The short answer
First make sure the coin is worth grading. Then choose the service — PCGS or NGC for US coins, NGC for most world coins, NGC Ancients for ancients — and submit directly, which may require a membership, or through a dealer. Between fees, membership, shipping and insurance, a submission rarely costs under thirty or forty dollars a coin.
First, should you grade it at all?
The most common mistake is grading a coin that is not worth grading. Between the fee, the membership, shipping both ways and insurance, a submission rarely costs less than thirty or forty dollars a coin once everything is counted. Send in a coin worth twenty and you have turned a twenty dollar coin into a twenty dollar coin in a plastic holder that cost you fifty.
Grading is usually worth it when one of these is true:
The coin is valuable enough that the fee is small next to it. A rough rule many collectors use is that the coin should be worth at least five times the total cost of grading.
The grade is genuinely in question at a boundary that matters. On some series, one point is the difference between a few hundred dollars and a few thousand.
Authenticity is in doubt. Counterfeits of key dates and popular world coins are good enough now that certification is the practical answer.
You intend to sell. Certified coins sell more easily and to more buyers, because the buyer does not have to trust your description.
It is usually not worth it for common circulated coins, for bullion where the metal sets the price, or for anything where you already know the grade and are not selling.
The main services
PCGS
Founded 1986, based in California. The market leader for classic US coins, and the service behind the most-followed Set Registry. For key dates in series like Morgan dollars and classic gold, PCGS-graded examples tend to bring a small premium over the same grade elsewhere.
Direct submission requires a Collectors Club membership, which starts at $69 a year; the Gold ($149) and Platinum ($249) levels include vouchers for free gradings.
NGC
Founded 1987, based in Florida, and the official grading service of the American Numismatic Association. The clear leader in world coins, ancients and moderns.
Membership is cheaper — an associate membership is around $25 a year — which makes NGC the more practical choice for someone who submits occasionally.
CACG
The newest of the major names, from the people behind CAC. Worth understanding the distinction: CAC is a sticker service that reviews coins already graded by others and applies a green sticker for solid-for-grade or a gold one for undergraded. CACG is their own grading company, which grades and encapsulates like PCGS or NGC. It has built a reputation for strictness.
ANACS
The oldest authentication service, founded 1972. Cheaper than the big two and no membership required. Particularly respected for die varieties and for details grading on problem coins. ANACS-graded coins do not generally command the same premium at resale.
ICG
Budget-focused, no membership, often used for bulk submissions of modestly valued material. Less widely accepted than the others.
US, world and ancient coins want different services
US coins
Either of the big two will serve you well. PCGS has the edge on classic US material and on Set Registry participation. For very high grades, it is worth checking both population reports before choosing — the service with fewer examples at your grade may produce a better result at auction.
World coins
NGC is the stronger choice. It grades most world coins struck from 1600 onward, and from around 1300 for Western Europe, and it has both the deeper expertise and the larger census in this area. If you collect Mexican, Chinese, British or almost any non-US material, NGC is where the comparable graded population lives.
Note that world submissions want a full description — denomination, year or date range, region and ruler where applicable, and a catalogue number for patterns, tokens and medals.
Ancient coins
NGC Ancients is effectively the only mainstream option. It covers Western ancient civilisations from the beginning of coinage to around AD 500, plus Byzantine issues through 1453.
Ancients are graded differently from modern coins: rather than a single number, they receive an overall grade alongside separate assessments of strike and surface, which reflects that condition in ancient coinage is a more complicated question than wear alone.
One thing that will get an ancient rejected is bronze disease, the active corrosion that spreads on copper-alloy coins. Deal with that before submitting.
How a submission works
1. Join, or use a dealer. PCGS and CACG generally require membership for direct submission. NGC and ANACS have more routes in. If you would rather not join, most dealers will submit on your behalf for a fee, and that is often the sensible option for a first submission.
2. Pick a tier. Every service offers levels priced by the coin’s value and how fast you want it back. Economy tiers cover coins up to a few hundred dollars with the longest turnaround; higher tiers cover more valuable coins and come back faster.
3. Declare the value honestly. This is the trap. Each tier has a maximum value, and if your coin is worth more than the tier allows, the service will bump it to the correct tier and charge you accordingly, or return it ungraded. Under-declaring to save money does not work and delays everything.
4. Fill in the form completely. Date, denomination, variety and declared value for each coin. Varieties usually need to be requested specifically, and there is often a fee for attribution.
5. Package properly. Coins in flips or non-PVC holders, padded so nothing moves, the form inside the box, and ship insured. Never send raw coins loose.
6. Wait. Turnaround runs from a couple of days on the most expensive tiers to a couple of months on economy. Published times are estimates and slip when the market is busy.
Submitting at a show
Both major services take submissions at larger shows. You hand the coins over in person, can often get them back before the show ends, and you avoid the shipping risk entirely. For a first submission it is the least nerve-wracking route.
Crossovers
Sending a coin already slabbed by one service to another. It stays sealed, and the receiving company only breaks it out if it will match or beat the existing grade. NGC accepts crossovers from PCGS holders; coins in other companies’ holders generally need to be freed first.
How Numistify tracks coins you have sent for grading
A submission is the point where a collection is most likely to lose track of itself. Coins leave the house, several at once, sometimes to different services on different tiers, and they come back weeks or months later with new grades, new numbers and new costs attached. In between they are not in your album and not in your hands.
Numistify is built to carry a coin through that.
Mark a coin as out at the grader
Every item has a storage location field, so a coin at the grader is recorded as being at the grader rather than simply missing. Set it when the package goes out and the question “what did I send?” has an answer that does not depend on memory.
The invoice field groups a submission, so all the coins that went in one box can be found together and updated together when they come back.
Grading fees roll into the coin’s cost
Grading fee and grading shipping are their own fields, separate from the purchase price, and they roll into the coin’s total cost. A coin bought for 400 and graded for 60 has cost you 460, and that is the figure Numistify uses when you sell — not the 400.
There are fields for variety attribution and other add-on charges too, so the total does not quietly under-count.
Record the grade and cert number when it returns
When the coin comes back there are fields for grading service, certification number, grade, CAC status and sticker, and top pop — so the slab and your record say the same thing. Because each item already has its own SKU, two identical coins sent together do not get confused when they return with different grades.
What that looks like end to end
Say you send four coins to NGC in one box. Before they go out you set the storage location on all four to NGC submission and give them the same invoice number. While they are away, your inventory still shows all four, and it shows where they are.
Ten weeks later they come back. You find them together by invoice, enter the grade and certification number on each, add the grading fee, and set the storage location to wherever they are going to live. Nothing was lost track of, and each coin’s cost now includes what it took to get it graded.
Work out the cost before you send
Numistify carries the published tier structures for the major services — fee, value limit and turnaround — so you can work out what a submission will cost before you send it. Each is shown with the date it was last checked, because grading fees change and a figure without a date is worse than none.
Free for the first fifty items, no card required.
Questions people ask
Is it worth grading my coin?
Usually only if the coin is worth several times the cost of grading, if the grade is in question at a boundary that changes the value, if authenticity is in doubt, or if you intend to sell. Between fees, membership, shipping and insurance a submission rarely costs under thirty or forty dollars a coin, so grading a common circulated coin loses money.
Which grading service is best for world coins?
NGC. It grades most world coins struck from 1600 onward, from around 1300 for Western Europe, and has the deeper expertise and larger census in world material. PCGS has the edge on classic US coins instead.
Who grades ancient coins?
NGC Ancients is effectively the only mainstream option, covering Western ancient civilisations from the beginning of coinage to around AD 500 and Byzantine issues through 1453. Ancients get an overall grade plus separate strike and surface assessments rather than a single number.
Do I need a membership to submit coins for grading?
For direct submission, PCGS and CACG generally require one; PCGS Collectors Club starts at $69 a year and NGC associate membership around $25. ANACS and ICG do not require membership, and any of them can be submitted through a dealer instead.
What happens if I declare the wrong value?
Each tier has a maximum coin value. If your coin is worth more than the tier allows, the service will move it to the correct tier and charge the difference, or return it ungraded. Under-declaring to save money does not work.
What is the difference between CAC and CACG?
CAC reviews coins already graded by other companies and applies a green sticker for solid-for-grade or gold for undergraded. CACG is their own grading company, which grades and encapsulates coins itself.
Related guides
What to record when you buy a coin — including the fields a grading result fills in.
How to track a coin collection — the wider picture, if you are just starting out.
Need to track your collection?
Numistify is where collectors keep track of what they actually have — coins, banknotes and bullion in one catalogue, with the date, mint mark, grade and cert number on every piece.
It also works out what each item really cost you, with the buyer fees, shipping and grading added in rather than just the hammer price. When you sell, you can see what you made on it.
Free for your first 50 items, and there is no card to enter.