A Letter from Mark Salzberg

Dear Fellow Numismatists:

Happy New Year! January is usually the most exciting month of the year for numismatists, and this year is no exception. The month begins with a bevy of auctions at which more than $100 million in rare coins and paper money will be sold. These auctions will be held simultaneously in New York and Tampa in conjunction with the NYINC and FUN Show.

There are also a host of new coins slated to come out in January. Most notable are the 2016 Silver and Gold Eagles, two coins that celebrate their 30th anniversaries this year.

The Silver Eagle is probably the most popular collectible coin in the world right now and, amazingly, NGC has graded more than 8 million of them—far more than any other third-party coin grading service. This year will be particularly exciting for collectors of Silver Eagles and modern coins in general as NGC launches a range of interesting new programs to coincide with new US Mint releases.

Recently, for example, NGC announced that it had inked exclusive deals with John Mercanti, the former 12th US Mint Chief Engraver and designer of the reverse of the American Silver Eagle, and Ed Moy, the former 38th Director of the US Mint, to individually hand-sign NGC certification labels. John and Ed join Elizabeth Jones, the former 11th US Mint Chief Engraver, who also signs certification labels exclusively for NGC.

These hand-signed labels create a unique collectible that has an appealing personal connection to historically important US Mint figures. Besides these autographed labels, NGC continues to lead the way with novel programs that build interest in the hobby such as colored holders and metallic foil labels.

Spearheading these efforts is Michael “Miles” Standish, who we are very pleased to have recently hired as a vice president. Miles has more than 30 years of industry experience and in the last 15 years has become particularly well known for his innovations in the modern coin market. His knowledge and creativity will help NGC to develop many new and exciting programs that will enhance the appeal and presentation of modern coins.

Modern coin collectors have much more to look forward to in 2016.

As we look forward to 2016, I also reflect upon our achievements during the prior year. 2015 was a noteworthy year for NGC in every category from modern coins to ancient coins.

NGC Ancients, which had a banner year in 2015. After having been selected to grade several important collections in 2014, including Demitriadis and Kern, NGC Ancients gained more traction over the last year and has graded many of the most valuable rarities to come to auction.

In fact, perhaps the most valuable coin in the upcoming Heritage Auctions NYINC World & Ancient Coins sale is a Macedonian decadrachm of Alexander the Great that was graded by NGC Ancients. It really is an incredible privilege to be able to handle the world’s greatest rarities from ancient times to the modern era.

While NGC has had many exciting developments over the last year in the United States, even more significant are our developments overseas.

In June, NGC and its affiliated companies, Numismatic Conservation Services (NCS) and Paper Money Guaranty (PMG), announced a major expansion in China that included a new office in Shanghai that is more than double the size of our previous space. We also added four high-level Official Submission Centers in the country. Our new Shanghai office has allowed us to offer on-site NCS conservation and PMG grading in China for the first time in addition to more frequent on-site NGC grading events.

Meanwhile, we added a new Official Submission Center in Japan, grew our operations in Europe and Hong Kong (China), and graded a number of major world coin rarities that sold at auctions throughout the year.

Our international expansion propelled NGC to grade a record number of coins in 2015, including our 1 millionth Chinese coin. Likewise, in 2015 PMG graded far more notes than in any other year.

This success did not happen overnight. For more than 28 years we have worked tirelessly to build companies that have a positive impact on the hobby around the world. We continue to align our goals with those of collectors and dealers, maintain a long-term philosophy, and provide consistent and superior services. As a result, NGC, NCS and PMG have enhanced their position as the world’s leading and largest coin and paper money service companies.

We are, of course, extremely fortunate and humbled to be in this position. We know that none of this would be possible without the support we receive from people like you.

It is our hope that we can use our position to continue to expand and enhance the hobby around the world. We will do this by providing the best service, by creating, improving and translating free online resources on our websites, and by continuing our sponsorships of essential organizations and institutions such as the American Numismatic Association, Professional Numismatists Guild and the Smithsonian Institution.

Thank you all very much for giving us the opportunity to serve the hobby we love.

Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2016.

Regards,

Mark Salzberg
Chairman