Holograms Protect and Decorate More Coins

After last month’s coverage in Holography News® of how holograms were helping to create a safer marketplace for Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC) certified coins, another coin protection programme using holograms has emerged from PCGS.

Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) is a third-party coin and banknote grading company that was launched in 1986. Over 35 years, PCGS has examined and certified more than 52.4 million US and world coins, medals, and tokens with a combined value of over $51.4 billion.

PCGS was selected to create and debut a set of limited-edition holographic labels for a new programme of 2023 Morgan and Peace Dollars. The limited-edition coin holders are available via UltraBreaks, a new company offering coins in sealed packs that reveal which of the coins are inside only after the packaging is unwrapped.

‘PCGS is excited to be involved in a new and innovative project that brings the excitement of random chance seen in other collectibles to the coin market,’ said PCGS President Stephanie Sabin.

Just 300 examples of each of the 2023 Morgan Dollar and 2023 Peace Dollar are encapsulated with the holographic labels, which come in three levels: Ultra, Gold Rush, and Infinity. Each pack will contain one MS70 coin, with a chance at the Morgan or Peace dollar coin in all three different labels. MS70 is the highest rating of a coin’s condition according to the American Numismatic Association grading scale, it stands for Mint State 70 and represents a perfectly minted coin.

Ultra Label (© PCGS).

Only 267 Ultra labels are assigned to each of the two coins, while just 30 each were graded with Gold Rush labels and only three of each coin were paired with the Infinity label.

Czech Mint

Staying with the numismatic theme, the Czech Mint has posted that it will shortly be releasing a Czech Lion coin, created in cooperation with medal maker Asamat Baltaev and the nano-optical specialists, IQ Structures.

The range of silver and gold Czech Lion bullion coins feature a holographic security element which depict a shield featuring Czech national symbols on the reverse of the coin and is applied to selected high-mass Czech Lion coins. The hologram is intended to be both a protective and decorative element as, whilst easy to spot, it is extremely difficult to replicate.

More on the design and fabrication of the coin series next month.