NGCX: A Modern Collectible Coin 10-Point Grading System
If you’re an avid collector of anything—from superhero comic books and Pokemon or baseball trading cards to vintage printed magazines or movie paraphernalia—you may be familiar with a 10-point condition grade most services use to ascertain the quality of collectibles. From 1 to 10, if you take your comic or card into one of these services, you’ll receive a grade dependent on the quality of your collectible and how it's held up over time. If you plan to trade or sell, you should know your collectible's worth to fetch a fair price.
The industry this 10-point grading system had yet to break into was the world of numismatics—collectible coins. Since its induction in 1948 by William Sheldon, the industry standard has been the Sheldon System. According to this scale, if a coin was graded at a 1, it was worth $1, just as a 70-point graded coin would be worth $70. Naturally, the scale quickly lost its relevance due to factors like inflation and the rising worth of precious metals, so it was adapted not long after its release. The modified Sheldon Scale stuck and for the past 80-odd years it's been the primary industry grading scale.
Until Now…?
In November of 2022, one of the leading grading services in the coin world, the Numismatic Guarantee Company (NGC), announced its intent to change its labels to an all-new NGCX grading system—a 10-point coin grading system, similar to the scale used by graders of other collectibles.
With its adoption of NGCX, NGC aims to introduce coin collecting to a broader audience than ever while providing an equal assessment of value to the Sheldon 70-point scale. In other words? Now ALL collectors can easily transfer their industry knowledge of graded values to the world of coin collecting.
Labels on NGC-distributed coins began reflecting the change in January of 2023. The company has stated in interviews that they will only apply this NGCX scale to modern collectible coins (or coins produced post-1982). Also, the 10-point system closely follows the standard Sheldon Scale; its only notable difference is in simplifying the number that collectibles receive as their grade while still providing clear qualifications for worth with decimal values—4.4, 6.8, etc.
As a numismatic colleague of NGC, 7k is looking forward to its adoption of a modern collector's go-to value scale and we hope our Members embrace it with open arms. This is another tool to tuck into your belts that will help you relate to and share collectible coins with more people who will see their value and love them for their stories and artwork. Again, not every coin we supply with a graded quality from NGC will have a 1 – 10 on their labels. But for those that do, we want you all to understand why and how it can benefit you even further than the collectible’s asset value itself.
A 7k 10-Point Graded Surprise…
Speaking of 7k-offered NGCX-graded collectibles…we have a mighty fine surprise for you all hitting our stock soon. There’s a collection we’ve recently gotten our hands on, the first of which is scheduled to drop in November 2023. We think there might be more than a handful of you who will want it—BIG time.
Among this collection, you’ll find characters you’ll recognize instantly. Even your kids or friends will know their names! You’ll already know their stories, heart songs, and usual outfits. You’ve probably seen the films they starred in, you might have debated over your favorites, and it’s even possible that you’ve visited one or both magical kingdoms on either coast of the U.S. to meet their characters…
That’s right, ladies and gents—we’ve got Disney-inspired collectible coins! The stand-out features of the collection are the enchanting colorization on the reverse of each issue and an Ultra High Relief, highlighting some of the distinguished scenes from Disney 100 motion pictures in vivid detail. Produced with 1 oz of .999 fine Silver, each Disney piece is meticulously crafted with a decorative border made to reflect that of a postage stamp. That’s all we’ll give away for now; we’ll let you daydream over which Disney stories you’ll get to collect. But if all goes well, you might have the chance to grab more of your favorites in the future!
The beginning of a promising collection, the Disney Stamps series is one of the first 7k-offered collections that will flash the new NGCX 10-point grade. Labels will reflect condition on a scale from 1 – 10, so you can whip out your new treasure among your comic or baseball card-collecting friends and show them off to understanding oohs and ahhs. We hope that the common ground achieved by the NGCX between collectors across the game will help our Members more easily connect, befriend, and share knowledge with other collectors. And what better middle ground to do that with than collectibles with masterful artistry, classic stories, and an air of magic already built in? Who’s ready to grab an NGCX-label Disney Stamp? We’ll race ya!
