US Coins

PCGS celebrates 30th with limited-edition medal

By Paul Gilkes

Published: May 15, 2016, 6 AM

Professional Coin Grading Service has commissioned a limited-edition medal to mark the major grading service's 30th anniversary

Images courtesy of Professional Coin Grading Service.

PCGS's colorized 30th anniversary medal includes around the reverse border the locations around the world where the grading service maintains offices.

Images courtesy of PCGS.

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The silver-plated struck medal is limited to a production run of 5,000 pieces. PCGS officials have not released the name of the firm that produced them.

Images courtesy of PCGS

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The retro OGH (Old Green Holder) grading insert used from 1986 to 1990 has been resurrected and enhanced with the latest security features. Collectors may request use of the labels for coin submissions in 2016.

As part of its 30th anniversary celebration, Professional Coin Grading Service has issued a limited-edition colorized medal encapsulated in a PCGS holder.

Steve Sloan, marketing director for Collectors Universe, PCGS’s parent company, said a total of 5,000 medals were produced, with 2,500 reserved for collectors in the United States and the remaining 2,500 set aside for overseas distribution.

Approximately 500 of the medals were distributed April 8 to 10 during a promotion at the Hong Kong International Coin Convention.

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U.S. collectors will have their first opportunity to secure one of the PCGS-encapsulated medals during the June 9 to 11 Long Beach Coin, Stamp & Sports Collectibles Expo in Long Beach, Calif.

Collectors Universe owns the Long Beach convention.

Those who submit 25 or more coins to PCGS for authentication and grading during the Long Beach show will receive one of the 30th anniversary medals free, Sloan said.

“We have also received inquiries from customers as to if we will be offering these for sale,” Sloan said. “Unfortunately, the only way to currently secure a medal is through the Long Beach Expo promotion.”

The medals, while they last, will be brought to other coin conventions domestically and abroad, Sloan said.

The medals are 40 millimeters in diameter, weigh 27 grams, bear a reeded edge and are made of .999 fine silver plated over bronze.

The medal’s obverse design combines the PCGS monogram superimposed over a world globe and the anniversary years inscribed around. The inscriptions are raised.

The reverse employs the PCGS shield over a globe, and around the border inscriptions of the locations where PCGS maintains offices — Newport Beach (Calif.), Hong Kong and Shanghai in China, and Paris.

The reverse inscriptions are incuse.

The encapsulation combines a number of overt and covert security devices, Sloan said.

While housed in a fifth generation holder, the insert label, on which the grading information is normally found, is a retro rendition of the “Old Green Holder” type employed with first and second generation PCGS plastic holders issued from 1986 through 1990, Sloan said.