NGC & PCGS Grading Explained: Why It Matters for Gold Investors

If you are stepping into graded gold for the first time, the alphabet soup on the slabs can put you off before you start. NGC and PCGS are the two big independent grading houses, and the grade they assign drives a large part of the coin’s market value.

Both use the Sheldon scale, running from 1 to 70. For proof coins, those struck on polished planchets with treated dies to give a mirror finish, the prefix is PF. So a coin is described as, say, PF68 or PF70.

PF68 means very minor imperfections, only visible under decent magnification. PF69 is essentially flawless to the naked eye and shows almost nothing under a 5× loupe. PF70 is the top of the scale and is awarded sparingly.

The pricing gap between these grades is significant. A PF70 Britannia can trade at three to ten times the premium of the same coin without a grade. The reason is supply: even from a proof mintage struck to high standards, only a small share comes out perfect.

Grading is also about trust. Each coin is sealed in a tamper-evident slab with a unique certification number, so the buyer at the other end of any sale knows what they are getting without having to take the coin out and examine it.

We work exclusively with NGC- or PCGS-graded coins at PF68 or above. It keeps the quality bar consistent and makes resale a much simpler conversation when the time comes.