The history of Numismatics, coin collecting, has evolved over the last 80 years from the introduction of MS grading of large cents in the 1940’s by Marshall Sheldon to the 1970’s with MS grading of silver dollars by Paramount Coins. In 1985 revolutionary changes came about with the invention of coin slabbing, the encapsulation of a graded coin in a plastic holder, invented and patented by Alan Hager.

Mr. Hager has 62 years in the numismatic business, started in 1958 as the Silver Dollar Kid at 9 years old. In 1984, 1985 and 1986 he wrote his 3 Volume Opus on silver dollars, The Comprehensive Guide to Morgan and Peace Dollars Volume-1, Proof-Likes and Proofs Volume-2 and Eisenhower Dollars Volume-3, over 1500 pages on dollars. He wrote books on Baseball, Football, Basketball, Hockey, Golf and Boxing cards from 1991 to 1997. In 2008 he wrote “The Standard Certified Price Guide to Canadian Coins”. This was followed by his major contribution to Rick Tomaska’s book on Kennedy Half dollars in 2010 and the reprint in 2011, winning book of the year in the industry.

When you have PCGS or NGC certified coins like a 1953-S Jefferson Nickel in MS-65 selling for $22.00 and its counterpart MS-65 FS selling for $22,000.00 (1,000 times the price of the non-steps), one realizes the gap is too great. Grade Enhancement is now a must as the price spreads are out of line. You now have a MAC & GE MS-65 (4-FS) selling 20% to 30% of the 5-FS value, it becomes very clear as to the value of grade enhancements. Another example is the 1999 American Silver Eagle in NGC MS-69 selling for $65 and its MS-70 counterpart at $6,500 or 100 times greater. A MAC NGC MS-69 has considerably more value and could be worth 10% of the MS-70 value. These are just two examples of the thousands of Modern, Traditional, and world coins in today’s market that have spreads of four times to 1,000 times the value between the grades.