SHOULD HISTORICAL MEDALS BE ENCAPSULATED?

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V17 2014 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 17, Number 5, February 2, 2014, Article 14

Tony Lopez published an article in the December 2013 issue of the MCA Advisory (a publication of the Medal Collectors of America) asking whether historical medals should be encapsulated by grading and certification services. In it he provided multiple examples of inaccurate, confusing, misleading or just plain wrong descriptions and attributions of medals slabbed by the services. He also makes a strong case against the authenticity of a medal declared authentic by one of the services. Here's a short excerpt from his article's conclusion. -Editor

Research on medals, compared to research on coins, is in its infancy. The grading companies neither have, nor is it possible for them to have, the level of expertise across the board for historical medals that they can offer for coins.

In order to meet the same standards used in grading and authenticating coins, the duty of the grading companies to competently and accurately encapsulate medals requires them to have expertise in authenticating and grading well over a thousand different medals of different designs, compositions, and manufacturing processes, manufactured over a period of nearly 500 years. For now they can accomplish this using only a few scattered references (Betts is over 100 years old and seriously outdated), and with no grading standards in existence. Only one word comes to mind: “Impossible”.

With historical medals, there are no published grading standards and no grading sets, so it is impossible for the grading services to meet the same grading standards they use for coins As said earlier, between all of the categories of historical medals they include in their services, there are thousands of designs and even more varieties. With no standards, limited references, and minimal experience and expertise with an overwhelming number of different types and designs of medals spanning many centuries, it is not possible for them to meet the same standards for grading historical medals that they use for coins.

My solemn advice to medal collectors is to free your “graded” medals from their slabs so that you can “feel” the history. Save your money on third party authentication and grading. And, when deciding what to bid, or whether to buy, ignore everything written on the plastic.

This issue features a landmark article by Tony Lopez. The piece provides fascinating insights into Tony’s authentication techniques, but its special importance derives from its discussion of the role of grading services in the collecting of historical medals. The author firmly rejects the idea of encapsulation on general principles, with which most readers would agree.

The more courageous point he makes is that, unlike the situation with coins, the grading services do not have the expertise either to grade or to authenticate. He makes his case with a series of examples that NGC and PCGS would find difficult to refute. Given that medals represent virgin territory for the grading services, it will be difficult to keep them out unless more collectors emulate Tony’s example of trashing the plastic.

You will see in the next issue of the MCA Advisory the record-breaking amount of correspondence and discussion that has followed the article. I am pleased the subject matter struck an important chord in the hobby. Hopefully something positive will come of it.

I'm not surprised the article hit a nerve. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. While it's hard to expect even the best third-party experts to be truly expert in everything, it's equally distressing to see so many mistakes. There's no shame in admitting that you don't have the answer, and I wouldn't advocate that the services refund their fees in such a case. There's a limit to what one should expect for a $35 consulting fee, but it is fair to expect some consistency and predictability in attributions, and an honest "Sorry, we don't know either" response when appropriate. -Editor

To learn more about the Medal Collectors of America, see: www.medalcollectors.org

Wayne Homren, Editor