I bought some of these coins and initially left favorable feedback - I now know that I was ripped off.
"Precision Coin Grading" (www.precisioncoingrading.com) is operated from the same Sydney, NSW address as the main eBay seller of these coins - I checked the domain registration details of the company and it was the same as the return address of where I received the coins from. It is essentially a con - many of the coins appear to be cleaned, polished or simply over graded. The seller claims not to have graded the coins himself, but why are the coins coming from the address of the grading company?
Other collectors are onto this - see http://coinauctionshelp.com/Coin_Help_Blog/2009/11/03/new-grading-services-at-ebay-warning-pcgmgc/ as an example.
yes
No. They are not a fake coin grading entity, but the quality of the grade will not be as reliable as NGC or PCGS. Any individual grade may be spot on, but then again it may be 2 grades too high.
yes, but not a very good or reliable one.
No, I can't seem to find -any- information on them. I wouldn't buy an NGA slabbed coin unless you felt that the price was right and you can tell (hands on preferably) that the coin meets your specification. Most likely NGA is a front created by a coin dealer to mark up common coins by certifying them as MS-70/69 when in reality they might only grade MS-63/4 by PCGS/NGC. So no, I would not classify NGA as a reliable grading company.
Raw refers to a coin that isn't sold in a case. Higher end coins are usually encapsulated and graded by a coin grading company such as PGS. A raw coin however isn't. Some people may try to assign numeric grades to a raw coin, however until it is graded by a reputable grading company, that number is only a rough estimate and most likely is going to be different than the coin if graded by a grading company.
The best way to be certain your coin is genuine is to have it graded by a third party grading company. Many coin dealers can assist you in this process for a fee. There is also a fee for the actual grading and authentication.
Professional Coin Grading Service was created in 1986.
For an informal grading, bring it to a coin dealer for an on-site appraisal. For an official grading, it needs to be sent into a professional grading service.
ICG stands for the company that graded the coin: Independent Coin Graders, MS 70 stands for Mint State 70, the highest possible grade for the coin. It means that such a coin was found to be flawless with the coin grading company.
It's not a well known service. If you are going to have a coin graded I would suggest using one of the more well known companies.
"PL" in coin grading means "prooflike". It is used to describe a coin that has mirror fields and fine details resembling a proof struck coin but is not a true proof.
if the company is not legitimate then it would seem any grade they placed on a coin would be worthless. If you want a true grade send it to a well known grading service.