mmmmm

Well as PMG says on their FAQ page "PMG does not buy, sell or appraise notes," Which means according to them they do not set the value. They don't "appraise." So who sets the value? And the value needs to be set before they grade the note, the value cannot be re-assigned after the grading. If you think about it, they cannot bump up the "tier" after the note has been graded. If they did "re-value" a note after grading that would make them "appraisers" which would then make them fall under the Florida appraisal laws and regulations. Which would prohibit them from changing the fees. And if they themselves assigned a value at submission, then again it would make them "appraisers" which would then make them fall under the Florida appraisal laws and regulations. They are stuck. They cannot appraise the value of the note or change its tier for fees after grading has started. I wonder why they just don't charge a flat fee?

And there is the first problem as I wrote before, PMG pegs SCWPM grade of "UNC" to only 60; however, technically SCWPM's grade "UNC" includes everything from 60 to 70. So if SCWPM says the value of an uncirculated banknote is 250, then that means all notes from 60 to 70 are 250. However by PMG saying SCWPM's "UNC" is "60" and only "60" well then you see what they are doing. So what confuses me is they say submit the value of the note but they can change the value of the note? Second, as you noted "PMG will revalue a note and bump it up a tier if they feel it's under valued," I could be wrong, but I think according to Florida state law that is illegal. I don't think they are legally allowed to "revalue" the note after the note has been submitted and accepted for grading, and especially if it has gone through the grading process. For me it still comes down to who decides the value and when? Because I submit it at one value but they can arbitrary re-assign it a value. humph

I am still debating on whether to submit or not. Even though PMG post prices and fees, the cost is actually very vague and the price structure is a variable depending on what they decide the value of the banknote is. For example, after interviewing many collectors who have submitted banknotes it appears that PMG places the value on the banknote after it has been graded instead of before. Which as you could imagine is a conflict of interest. The higher the grade the higher the value, the higher the Fee for grading. I do not see why a banknote valued over 300 would be graded any different than a banknote valued under 300. The process to me is the same, so the cost should be the same. So I don't see the distinction. Then again, I am not a dealer and my collection will be with my family until after they toss it out. I am not rich, the cheapest way for me to submit a banknote would be "Modern Bulk - Mixed Types (1957-present)" which to start is $16 a banknote. That's is a minimum of 50 banknotes. That's $750 dollars, and that is not including shipping and handling. I need to save up for a year just for this level. To give a frame of reference, none of the banknotes that I own have a cataloged value above $250 and the most that I have paid for a banknote was $143 for a Costa Rica 50,000 Colones and that included shipping. The problem is the UNC of SCWPM is said by some to be 60 on the PMG scale. So what would be the charge?

Do these dealers charge you for doing the paperwork? Does it cost more going through a dealer than submitting directly? Thank you

Thank you for the reply. That is unfortunate that you do not keep track of counterfeits or have a counterfeit database, I thought there would be one in order to "red flag" submitted banknotes. Such a database would help reduce the spread of counterfeits and would greatly benefit the banknote community as a whole. It would be pretty easy to setup. I wonder what would happen if all the grading services had a common counterfeit database that was accessible to everyone or at least to the other grading services. Thank you for the information and the reply.

Hello, I don't know if PMG track this, but as a collector it would be interesting to know. What percent of banknotes submitted to PMG for grading are rejected as counterfeits? What is the most common counterfeited country? What is the most common counterfeited banknote that is submitted? If you don't have an answer that is okay. I thought that would be something you would track and let collectors to watch out for. Thank you,

Catalog numbers do sometimes change. But you need to verify the note anyway, especially when you receive them back from PMG. Like many other grading services PMG does make mistakes in identifying banknotes at times and you may end up with a mislabeled note like the example here which is labeled as a Ceylon 50 cent note P-41, but it is clearly a 25 cents P-40. Mistakes happen. And when you go to buy a PMG certified banknote I would hope you would always be verifying the certification and compare the label to the banknote. There are a good number of errors and fakes out there. Anyway, with what appears to be the end of the SCWPM catalog system with no clear catalog system to replace it, maybe it would be better just to identify the banknote in a different way other than catalog number.

Do you think that PMG should just stop putting catalog numbers on the PMG label?

Thank you for clarifying that. One more question. Since Krause Publications, there have been so many groups assigning "catalog numbers," some are pretty bad and change them often like greysheet's. You said you would charge a research fee if a catalog does exist, so which catalog does PMG primarily use for new notes and is PMG going to start an online catalog like banknote.ws so that submitters can match the numbers? Thank you,

You would think the first step in the process of authenticating a banknote would be identifying the banknote so that it could be compared to a genuine banknote. However, for some reason PMG requires the submitter to identify the banknote on the submission forum. Does that mean PMG is not actually authenticating the banknote? What if I am not sure if the banknote is "57a" or "57b" or "57Ab" and so I just put "57" on the form, would I be charged the "adjustment fee of $5 per note" and "$10 adjustment fee" for not putting the correct number down? Or if I enter "57" but it turns out to be a similar note "128"? Or does PMG not look for that? Would I get charged for missidentifying a banknote? And what about if the banknote does not have an assigned "Pick number" because it is new or missed in the catalogue? How do I fill out the forum for that? I am missing the logic somewhere of why the submitter needs to identify the banknote if PMG is suppose to be a "grading / authentication" company. It does not make sense for PMG to rely on the submitter to identify a banknote. So what do I do if I do not know the proper catalogue number of a banknote. Thank you,