Token & Medal Grading Process

[exonumiajim]

I was told that the process for grading tokens & medals are different than grading coins.  Does anyone know the tokens & medals grading process and how it differs from coin grading?

[John5123]

I don't think the actual grading of the medal condition is different from that of a coin. What is different is that NGC has to research what the item is, which is an extra step that takes time. They may also have a limited number of medal specialists which would contribute to additional scheduling time. That is why the turn around time for medals and tokens is disclaimed on the service tier fee page. If you go to the NGC census page you will see a tab for U.S. medals and tokens and another one for International. If you click through you will see there are many different catalogs and research material referenced that has to be sifted through to find a match. Failing to find a match, NGC then has to give its own description. I have seen multiple NGC descriptions for the same unlisted medal on different NGC holders.  I collect so-called dollars of the two Chicago World's fairs. There are many more unlisted so-called dollars for those fairs than there are listed ones in Hibler and Kappen, as most are smaller in diameter than the HK catalog criteria used.