(Santa Ana, California) – A hoard of Indian Head $5 gold pieces found in an unclaimed bank safe deposit box in Florida has been certified by Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS). Nearly half of the 262 coins graded mint state, including dozens of rare date 1911-S and 1916-S Half Eagles.

"This is an incredible discovery. They came completely out of the woodwork," said Lexington, Kentucky and Sarasota, Florida dealer, Jeff Garrett, who jointly purchased the coins with dealer Marc Earle of Saint Petersburg, Florida from a government sale of unclaimed items. They then sold all of them to Bill Gale of New York Mint in Edina, Minnesota.

"This is one of the more unusual hoards I’ve seen in my career," stated PCGS Founder, David Hall. "There was a group of 1910-D $5 Indians that appeared in the 1970s, but that was over 30 years ago. This is the only large group of mint state San Francisco Mint $5 Indians I’ve ever heard of. By far, the S-mint issue are the rarest $5 Indians to find in mint state."

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(Santa Ana, California) – Rare coin dealer and veteran California business executive, Don Willis, has been named President of the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS), a division of Collectors Universe, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLCT), effective October 7, 2008.

"In addition to owning his own rare coin dealership the past six years, Don has over 20 years of executive experience in growing corporate businesses," said David Hall, PCGS Founder and President of Collectors Universe.

"Don is a rare combination of world class coin expertise and solid corporate business experience.  He began his business career in the field of Information Technology over 30 years ago, and ratcheted up his responsibilities with each business opportunity. 

Before his move into his own rare coin business in 2002, Don served 20 years as a senior IT officer in several growing companies.  He founded his own Internet business, a supply chain software company, in 1996 and raised $58 million in venture capital funding.  In 2002 he left the software company he founded and took his entrepreneurial skills into the rare coin business to start his own dealership, Premium Numismatics of Huntington Beach, California."

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(Santa Ana, California) – Collectors Universe, Inc. announced today, September 30, 2008, that PCGS President, Ron Guth, would be changing his role effective October 1, 2008 to become President of CoinFacts.com, a unit of PCGS that Guth had originally founded in 1999 that offers a virtual encyclopedia of knowledge about almost all U.S. Coins. 

As for the President’s role at PCGS, until a new President is named, David Hall and Steve Mayer, Chief Operating Officer for Collectors Universe, will assume Mr. Guth’s duties to allow him to transition to the new position. Guth will oversee the building and maintenance of web-based content for both the PCGS and Coin Facts websites and related publications.

According to www.compete.com, CoinFacts.com has over 95,000 unique visitors per month. 

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(Long Beach, California) – An exhibit by Professional Coin Grading Service of counterfeit coins and the latest in the Professional Numismatists Guild’s "Share the Knowledge" educational seminars are among the highlights of the next Long Beach Coin, Stamp & Collectibles Expo, September 18 - 20, 2008.  The show will be held in the Long Beach, California Convention Center, 100 S. Pine Ave.

"The PCGS display will showcase an assortment of fake Chinese coins and the dies used for making some of them that were sold on the Internet or offered at souvenir shops and street fairs in Hong Kong," said Ronald J. Gillio, Expo General Chairman.

"We’ll also have a half dozen various club meetings and educational programs that are open to the public.  Whether you’re a consignor or a bidder, you’ll want to attend the PNG seminar about numismatic auctions."

The program, "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Rare Coin Auctions," will be presented by PNG member-dealer Greg Rohan, President of Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas, Texas, at Noon on Thursday, September 18. 

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New features, including online streaming video commentary from Collectors Universe President and Co-Founder David Hall have been added to the Professional Coin Grading Service’s authoritative Rare Coin Price Guide at www.PCGS.com/prices.  All of the information is available free to the public.

The price guide includes the PCGS3000™ Coin Market Summary that tracks the values of over 3,000 different PCGS-certified coins in a wide range of grades. The new Price Changes feature lets collectors and dealers track the top ten "gainers and losers" for the previous day, as well as the previous two weeks, three months and the past year.  There also are market values for bullion coins, such as American Eagles.

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The Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) announced Monday the removal of a half dozen coin dies used to make counterfeit Chinese coins.

The company purchased the dies through an online auction with the purpose to stop their use in producing more counterfeit coins. They will also be used to help educate collectors, and will be displayed with fake coins at the Long Beach Coin, Stamp and Collectibles Expo held September 18 – 20, 2008.

In the announcement, PCGS indicated the dies and coins were purchased from a seller based in China. Ron Guth, President of PCGS, said:

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The Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) has announced the return of First Strike® inserts to current and future submissions for members of the PCGS Collectors Club.

Ron Guth, President of PCGS, said in an e-mail announcement Tuesday,

“The collecting community let us know loud and clear that they wanted access to the First Strike inserts. Collectors like the First Strike program and they want the opportunity to have their own coins certified.”

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The "Red Copper Collection" of mint state and proof half cents and cents will be publicly displayed for the first time by Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) at the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money® convention in Baltimore, July 30 – August 2, 2008. 

Assembled over a period of more than 20 years by Stewart Blay of New York, the collection contains some of the finest known copper coins and has won awards from the PCGS Set RegistrySM annually for each of the past six years.

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The Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) announced Wednesday the immediate launch of a new "Genuine" service for coin collectors and dealers. For the fee of $100 per coin, PCGS will authenticate and encapsulate problem coins — coins that have been cleaned, suffer environmental damage, altered on the surface, major scratches, etc.

It’s important to point out that coin grading is not included in the new service. The main Genuine service features offer:

• Encasing coins in normal PCGS holders
• Use of standard PCGS inserts
• Use of the word “GENUINE” in place of the usual grade
• Eligibility for inclusion in the PCGS Set Registry (with a grade value of 1)

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Conducting the highest grossing auction in its 22-year history, Teletrade breaks records June 1 with total online auction sales surpassing $1.1 million and "The Green Holder Collection" realizing 100 percent sell-through.

IRVINE, Calif. – Teletrade, America’s largest fully automated Internet auction company for certified coins and currency, conducted its highest grossing online auction of certified coins in the company’s 22-year history on Sunday, June 1, 2008, realizing $1,124,253.

The featured highlight of the auction was “The Green Holder Collection,” more than 250 coins in classic PCGS early generation holders, which achieved 100 percent sell-through.

“This is a spectacular accomplishment for an online coin auction to exceed $1 million, which is not only huge for Teletrade but for the industry as a whole,” said Ian Russell, president of Teletrade.

“The Internet opens up so much possibility for buying and selling coins and currency at levels of success never imagined possible, and I am so thrilled that Teletrade is leading the way in Internet certified coin auctions.”

Russell attributes the success of the June 1 online auction to the extraordinary quality of the coins represented in “The Green Holder Collection,” supported by a dynamic marketing campaign of print advertisements, public relations, email blasts and online promotion, as well as very well-attended lot viewing at the Long Beach Coin, Stamp & Collectible Expo in the days leading up to the auction.

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