INTERVIEW: CAC FOUNDER JOHN ALBANESE

For more than four decades, John Albanese has been a numismatic thought leader, bringing innovation to an ages-old hobby and helping redefine how collectors and the marketplace understand the quality and condition of coins. In 1986, Albanese co-founded PCGS, and a year later established his own third-party grading firm, NGC. The creation of those two organizations revolutionized the coin industry, providing industry standards for consistent grading and offering a greater sense of security to the collectors and dealers who wanted authentic and accurately graded coins. While a novelty at first, the encapsulation of coins rapidly became commonplace.

By the 2000s, tens of millions of coins across the entire spectrums of grade, type, and period found their way into sonically sealed plastic. While NGC and PCGS have maintained the most consistent and rigorous of grading standards of all third-party graders, over time the inevitable happened—some slabbed coins of similar grade were simply better than others. One could place a few coins certified by the same company of identical type, date, and labeled grade and find that, perhaps, one or two really stood out from among the rest. And, invariably, less market receptivity for average or subpar pieces for a given grade could drag down prices for the best examples of the same grade—coins deserving of their own market.

What to do? Albanese had the answer. In 2007, he founded CAC with a mission to help premium-quality coins stand out from the rest by creating a separate market for them. For a fee, CAC evaluates coins slabbed by NGC and PCGS, awarding one of two possible seals of approval for coins of excellent quality and overall outstanding eye appeal for their labeled grade. Pieces determined to be at the top of their class for their grade receive a small green sticker on their slabs. Meanwhile, coins that are undergraded and would still qualify for a green sticker, even if graded one point higher, are bestowed a gold CAC seal.

The coins CAC has labeled, bearing shiny bean-shaped green or gold stickers, have performed well in both in day-to-day trading as well as in high-profile auction appearances. “Beaned” coins have performed remarkably well, trading for premiums ranging from about 10% to 90% and even more, as opposed to their identically graded but non-CAC counterparts. Prices for many of the most actively traded CAC coins have also been increasingly represented in The CDN Monthly Greysheet, further reflecting the fact that CAC coins have built a solid niche in the market.

CAC has now stickered more than 1.1 million coins with a combined insured valued of $5.5 billion and has an ever-growing network of member dealers.

To read the complete article, see:
Magic Beans: How Green & Gold Stickers Sprouted A New Marketplace (http://blog.greysheet.com/magic-beans-how-green-gold-stickers-sprouted-a-new-marketplace/)

To visit the CAC web site, see: https://www.caccoin.com/

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