The owner of the most valuable collection of United States rare coins is in the process of submitting all of his primary sets of U.S. coins to CAC Grading for crossover encapsulation.

Prominent collector Dell Loy Hansen has embarked upon a personal effort to combat “grade inflation” with this step. Previously certified by other third-party grading services, more than 6,000 coins from the Dell Loy Hansen Collection will be involved in the extraordinary initial crossover, representing just some of his classic American coin denominations, dates, types, and varieties. Thousands of other coins in his collection will also be submitted.

A Utah business executive, philanthropist, and former sports team owner, Hansen says he is purposely submitting his coins to stricter grading standards even at the risk of having some of his coins receive a lower grade from CACG. As a personal collector and a leader in the industry, Hansen believes this initiative will deliberately prove a point in combating “grade inflation” by some other third-party certification companies.

According to Hansen: “Ethics and personal integrity are the foundation that I’ve built my life around, both personally and professionally. This priority extends into my personal coin collecting as well and motivates me to partner with CAC Grading in an effort to combat ‘gradeflation.’ While focusing on the highest quality coin possible, I learned many lessons along my collecting journey. But the idea that some of my coins may have issues or have been pushed grade-wise to achieve a certain end-result goes against every fiber of my being.”

Hansen added: “I want my coins graded with integrity. I am advocating for a more consistent process in which the grades cannot be artificially inflated through multiple grading submissions. Thus, I’ve chosen CAC Grading and am excited to start this process!”

Many of his more than 1,000 previously certified registry set coins were ranked by another grading service as the current finest known or among the top three finest.

Over 42% of the 3,826 coins in the regular issue collection are either the finest known or tied for the finest known. An additional 16% have only a single piece graded finer, and 8.5% have only a pair of coins graded finer.

“In addition to this, many proof issues and historically significant pieces have also been added to the collection, making it a truly historically important collection of U.S. coins. The D.L. Hansen Collection is widely considered to be the greatest privately owned collection of U.S. coins ever assembled,” stated John Brush, president of DLRC (formerly David Lawrence Rare Coins) who assisted Hansen in assembling the collection.

Among the rarities from the Hansen Collection now being submitted to CACG are:
➤ The Buss 1894-S Barber dime.
➤ The Mickley-Hawn-Queller Proof 1804 Draped Bust silver dollar.
➤ The finest-graded 1884 and 1885 Proof Trade silver dollars.
➤ Two 1870-S Seated Liberty silver dollars.
➤ 1815 Capped Bust gold $5 half eagle.
➤ 1825/4 Capped Bust gold $5 half eagle.
➤ 1854-O and 1856-O Coronet gold $20 double eagles.

“The largest and most valuable U.S. coin collection of all time being crossed into CACG’s new holder and competing in our Registry is certainly the biggest news event in the history of third-party grading,” stated CAC Grading’s president, Ron Drzewucki.

CACG’s founder and chief executive officer, John Albanese, stated: “Dell Loy is willing to accept downgrades on millions of dollars’ worth of coins to prove a point about consistent grading standards. He has certainly flipped the script here in the coin industry playbook and I am proud to be his partner.”

“With the goal of acquiring an example of every standard-issue U.S. coin produced from 1792 to the present, the D.L. Hansen Collection is the most complete set of U.S. coins ever assembled. With the famed Louis E. Eliasberg Sr. Collection as a starting point, the Hansen Collection has added 60 years of issues produced by the United States Mint, with a primary focus on buying the finest coins available,” explained Brush.

Hansen is the founder and chief executive officer of The Wasatch Group, a real estate development, management, and finance company. Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, the company has 57 divisions and more than 1,700 employees with offices in 44 cities. From 2009 to 2020, he was owner of Real Salt Lake, a Major League Soccer team.

In 2007, Albanese and two dozen veteran numismatists founded Certified Acceptance Corp. to provide buyers and sellers verification that their coins certified by third-party grading services met stringent standards. Coins that met their standards received a coveted green CAC sticker on the encapsulation holders.

In 2022, Albanese organized over 150 leading members of the numismatic community to expand their mission for accuracy and consistency by creating a new third-party grading and encapsulation service that was launched in 2023, CAC Grading.

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