Customer Service
Buying/Selling DGS Coins
Submissions
Grading
AuthentiVIEW™
Holder Design
Population Report
eBay
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Customer Service
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Do you accept Paypal?
Yes. Please make payments to us in Paypal at: payment@dominiongrading.com
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How much do you charge for return shipping?
We have simplified shipping and handling to a simple formula. The base rate is $10, plus $0.75 additional for every thousand after the first $1000 in value.
For example, if you have $2000 in coins submitted, the shipping fee is $10.75.
All shipments will be sent via USPS priority, insured and/or registered mail. If you supply us with a FedEx or USPS express mail account (with your insurance) we will ship on your account for no shipping charge.
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Buying/Selling DGS Coins
Submissions
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Can I submit more than 20 coins in a single submission to save shipping and also to keep my items together?
Yes, as long as all coins in the submission are in the same submission tier, you may combine as many items as possible, on as many pages as you need. You don't even need a special form for the submission after the cover page. Just use regular paper if you like and attach it to the cover.
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Will DGS allow cross-over coins graded by PCI?
Yes. We will accept PCI-graded coins for submission at the cross-over rate into DGS graded slabs. However, we do not guarantee that the coins will grade the same after re-evaluation. There is a strong chance that coins will regrade lower in the DGS holder as our standards will be stricter than PCI. (See Grading Standards). Coins with problems that were not noted in PCI holders will be labeled as such in the DGS holders.
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When will DGS start accepting submissions for grading?
We plan to start accepting submissions by May 1, 2008. Submission received prior to May 1 will be graded before other submissions so get your coins in early. Please use the online submission form when preparing your submission.
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Will you accept ancient Roman, Greek, Byzantine, etc. coins for grading?
Not at this time. We are not set up with the proper holders or grading staff for ancients. We hope to offer grading of these coin in our second or third year.
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Is the Flip Fee waved for Mint sets, proof sets and other items packaged by the U.S. Mint?
Yes. We will not charge a flip fee for coins received in US (or other World Government) Mint packaging.
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Is there a separate charge to crack a coin out of its old holder before you regrade a coin?
Yes. We charge an $2 per coin in addition to the service tier price to crack out a coin for crossover or regrade from another service.
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Do you accept coins for cross-over at a higher grade only?
Yes. You may submit coins for crossover at a minimum grade, and that minimum grade may be higher than the existing grade on the holder. If the coin does not make this grade, your coin is returned to you in its original holder. Submission fees are still applicable in the event that a coin does not cross at the requested minimum grade.
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Can I submit coins in 2 1/2 X 2 1/2 flips without extra charge?
Yes. Any flips will be accepted. Please do not heat-seal, or staple the flips closed as this will make the grading process more difficult.
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Do you accept GSA dollars still in their government holders?
Yes, we will be happy to grade your GSA dollars. These are cracked out for grading purposes and then when they are put into the DGS holder, the label is designated “GSA”. We can not grade the coins and keep them in their original GSA holder. If you would like the cracked and empty GSA holder returned to you please include this on your submission form and we will be happy to send them back along with your graded coins.
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Grading
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What grading standard will DGS use?
DGS will use the grading standard established by Photograde (James Ruddy), first published in 1970. These standards were adopted by the American Numismatic Association (www.money.org) in 1977.
Jump to this topic.
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Who will be grading DGS coins?
Coins submitted to DGS will be carefully graded by a team of numismatic professionals consisting of members of the DLRC staff, and outside numismatic professionals who are considered to be experts in their fields. We also offer a Signature Series of grading where submitters may request the certification of their coin(s) from the designated outside expert. Please refer to the Signature Series information page.
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Will DGS accept damaged/cleaned coins for grading as ANACS and PCI have?
Yes. We believe that every authentic coin deserves protection in a slab and is worthy of certification and grading. We will notate problem coins with red text on the (same) label describing the problem. Also coins will NOT be net-graded. In other words, an AU coin that is cleaned is not XF.
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Do you plan on having a independent company doing an audit to insure a level playing field with coins submitted by DLRC?
Frankly, we don’t see a need for that at this time as we feel that the coins and grading will speak for themselves. We do place the letter “D” at the end of the serial number for every coin that has been submitted by David Lawrence Rare Coins. We feel that is the best way to offer full transparency. In the past we’ve seen other grading services offer “independent audits” but the marketplace did not attach any special value to that. If we take time to grade the coins properly, the marketplace will appreciate that. Our Visual Population report is our way of demonstrating to the community how serious we are about grading coins correctly.
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Will DGS grade error coins?
DGS will grade error coins on a limited basis in our first year as we get the mechanincs in place. For example, we want to be confident that we have holder sizes to accommodate submitted errors. Please send us an email describing what you have for submission and we'll do our best to work with you.
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When grading a counterfeit coin, why do you use use the words "Questionable Authenticity" rather than something more straighforward like "Counterfeit"?
When we state "Questionable Authenticity" we are of the opinion that the coin is counterfeit, or altered in such a way as to deceive.
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How do you determine if a coin has been cleaned?
Cleaning is generally obvious to us a professional graders and shows up on the coin as hairlines in the metal, and often the metal color just looks wrong. You may request that we not slab any coins that have been designated as “cleaned” or “damaged” in any way. The usual submission fee will apply but that way you don’t have to worry about getting the coin out of the holder.
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AuthentiVIEW™
Holder Design
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What will the new DGS holder and label look like?
The new DGS holder will use the same shell as the PCI and Hallmark certification services. We have an entirely new label and bar-code system for identification, as well as our new AuthentiView™ service which allows customers to look up images of all DGS-graded coins (valued over $100 at time of submission) on our web site to confirm that the coin in the holder is indeed the coin that we graded!
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Will the DGS holder show the edge of the coin?
At the moment, only the Presidential dollar coins have edge holders. We plan to offer edge-viewing holders within the first year of operations as we work on new designs.
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Will you be changing the design of the old PCI-design holder?
We will eventually upgrade and modify the holders but we are starting slowly and using the holders we have for the time being. We do have some nice changes in mind as time goes on.
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Will you use a hologram (hopefully inside the encapsulation if you do so)?
Not at this time. Our studies didn’t find any evidence that a hologram increased security in any way. If the slab can be counterfeited, so can the hologram. AuthentiVIEW is our answer to detecting counterfeit slabs.
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Population Report
eBay
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Can I list DGS-graded coins for sale on eBay?
At the moment you cannot list DGS-graded coins on eBay with the DGS name and grade in the item headline. Since we are a new startup, we must establish credibility with eBay before they will approve DGS grades. We are working hard to make that happen!
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Why are PCI coins not approved for Ebay?
Ebay has unilaterally declared all PCI-graded coins as unfit for listing. This is due to the inconsistent grading by PCI over the years. They do not distinguish between old and new PCI coins.
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Will you petition eBay to allow PCI coins to be auctioned on Ebay?
There are no plans at this time to petition eBay to allow the listing of PCI-graded coins. We believe there was too much inconsistency with the grading of PCI coins and we cannot guarantee the quality of PCI-graded coins.
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