History and the why and how of Grading and COAs

More than 20 years I bought a collection of toys and it included a version of his model  –

The very rare Dinky Toys Sweeteners for Industry was then valued at £5,000 ($9,000 in 2005) and a good proportion of the collection. It turned out to be fake (and maybe worth 2% of that).  And every type of collectible has this problem, read for example about the FBI’s Operation Bullpen which found faked signatures ranging from Babe Ruth to Ronald Reagan on memorabilia.

Dozens were arrested and 1,000s of items confiscated (and marked as forgeries). If intrigued read more about Operation Bullpen here.

So no wonder that there is a whole industry that is build around solving this problem – authentication and, closely related, grading.

Certificate of Authenticity

The idea is simple, you sell an item with a Certificate that states the item is orginal.  It is not clear who started this for collectibles.  My money is on Franklin Mint and its collectible-marketing-genius founder Joseph Segel who I believe started the practic in the mid 60s

There are many niche specialists, for example these two if you owned the fabled Beanie Baby #1 Bear –

hobbyDB Members can add Certificate of Authenticity (or CoA in short) from 58 different services  –

We are adding new ones all the time and I like to stress that we do not endorse them (our members should be able to document what they have without the hobbyDB team making value judgements).  Sometimes it even helps to know the authentication service for negative reasons, for example this Madonna photo will be fake (the service is one that the FBI said faked signatures) –

Grading (consider it an Add-On to CoAs)

In 1948, well-known numismatist William Herbert Sheldon attempted to standardize coin grading by proposing what is now known as the Sheldon Scale.  In 1962 the  Institute of Numismatic Authenticators or INA was founded  by the coin scholar Walter H. Breen. He recruited two other experts, Don Taxay and Lynn Glaser for the task at hand – one of these three would examine a coin, then issue a handwritten certificate of genuineness on INA letterhead, explaining the reasons for their determination.

The problem of course was that one could just sell the certificate with a coin in less good condition.  This was solved when slabbing coins started in 1986, here Morgan Dollars in slabs by different grading services  –

But it is an ever-ongoing race, it was recently reported that AliExpress offered fake slabs complete with holograms that could just be snapped together  (versus grading services sonically sealed slabs that cannot be opened without destroying the container).  Slabbing and grading is now available for action figures, coins, comics, model cars, posters, trading cards and other collectibles and hobbyDB currently allows its members to add grades and qualifiers from 74 services (including some that are not operationally anymore).  Here are some of their logos  –

Would you grade or get a CoA?

Assuming your item gets slabbed there are 3 advantages  –

1. Confidence (reduce the risk of buying a forged/fake items)
2. Protection (from breaks, drops, sunlight and other risks – take for example Funko POP!s that are very easily dinged  – I know about these!)
3. Presentation (easier to display, better aesthetics)
4. Preservation (increase the longevity of the condition)

What do you think?