posted 04-09-2008 06:11 PM               

Although the signature sets are non-competitive they provide a wonderful venue to display your collection and to expose others who may have not been familiar with them. I suppose a competitive set is possible in the future.

You can read further about what the Registry Sets are all about. The Registry Sets have been a real driver and contributor to the bull market in rare coins and medals.

posted 04-09-2008 06:37 PM               

If you haven't yet seen an encapsulated Robbins Medal, here is where one is pictured. I believe it is the way of the future for the medals, especially with their values rising.

posted 04-10-2008 07:48 AM               

The medals are graded because that is a requirement of NGC. I believe it has to do with their ability to create a population the medals. Grading is a real specialty.

I have been collecting coins and medals for years and can't grade very well at all once you get into the (MS) Mint State category. It all has to do with nicks, hairlines, eye appeal, etc.

As I have previously stated, the grading on these great medals is secondary, but that's what it took for NGC to get involved. However, I can envision a day when hundreds or thousands of the medals are graded and collectors then begin to look for the finest graded examples in order to have the bragging rights to the finest set.

posted 04-10-2008 03:55 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dennis Beatty:
My only disappointment is that NGC can only encase the round medallions... unless they use a holder with an oversized circular cut out, which to my eye looks a bit odd.

---

posted 04-10-2012 08:11 PM               

1. Does grading the medallions enhance value, and if so, by how much?

2. What is process for a collector to have medallions graded?

3. Does medallion alteration affect the value?

posted 04-10-2012 09:07 PM               

Basically coins are graded on a 0-70 scale, with 0 being a coin worn totally flat, and 70 being a perfect coin. A coin that was never circulated (technically this is a bit of a misnomer as there are plenty of coins that have been pulled out of circulation after their first transaction, and no one can tell the difference to one that truly just sat in a bank roll) will grade between MS60 to MS70 (MS stands for Mint State). A coin grading MS63 is called Choice uncirculated, while one grading MS65 is called Gem uncirculated. Theoretically ALL Robbins medallions will grade somewhere between MS60 and MS70 as they never circulated.

The difference for the prices paid for coins that have a one point differential in grade, let's say going from 63 to 64, can vary dramatically depending on the coin.

Probably one of the most commonly collected coins in the U.S. is the Morgan silver dollar. For a common date/mintmark Morgan (1881-S) the cost for a MS63 would be about $57 and about $75 for the MS64. On the other hand, for a key date Morgan dollar the difference can be quite dramatic, for example the 1884-S in MS63 will run about $32,000 and a MS64 will run about $90,000. You can get other date/mintmarks where the percentage change is much higher.

However, the big difference between coins and Robbins medallions is that people are buying the Robbins because of where they've been, and furthermore, in the Universal Rarity Scale (URS, a scale designating how absolutely rare a coin is) ALL Robbins medallions range from Extremely Scarce to Rare. There just aren't that many Flown Robbins medallions out there from the Apollo 7-17 series... less than 3,000 IN TOTAL.

GENERALLY all a higher grade tells someone is something that they can see with their own eyes, e.g. that it looks nicer than a lower graded piece (this is by NO means always true, but I won't go off onto that sidetrack here... email me if you've got a question).

I suspect there will be some Robbins collectors that want the highest grade possible. However, I suspect for the average Robbins collector they are more interested in the fact that the medallion actually flew in the first place. Most likely this will mean that the prices at the very highest grades will climb quite a bit, while the medallions at the mid-range of the scale will all pretty much move up or down depending on how many people are collecting Robbins in the first place. Right now I suspect that the grading won't really make much of a difference unless the medallion has a very high grade.

NGC grades Robbins medallions. Their contact info is:

Numismatic Guaranty Corporation
P.O. Box 4776
Sarasota, FL 34230
1-800-NGC-COIN toll free
+1 941-360-3990
+1 941-360-2553 fax

posted 04-10-2012 09:21 PM               

The Robbins medals are museum quality pieces (in fact, the National Air and Space Museum has had a set of Apollo medals on display for decades) and the encapsulation, at least in my eyes, detracts from this.

posted 04-14-2012 09:14 AM               

First, the "slabs" are not configured for the various medallion shapes, so they (NGC) simply use the closest circular size available. This looks awful in my opinion.

Secondly, there is no guarantee that they will continue to offer this service... so if you decide to encapsulate the medallions which you own today, any future purchases may not have a consistent look.

posted 11-18-2012 03:38 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by Conway:
What steps are needed for medallion certification?

---