David Lawrence Rare Coins has purchased PCI, a grading company founded in the mid-1980s.
?We have just completed the acquisition of PCI and are currently in the process of transferring the company?s assets from Georgia to Virginia,? John Feigenbaum, president of DLRC and now PCI president, wrote in an open letter posted Feb. 21 on the PCI Web site.
As new PCI operations get organized, the company is not encouraging new submissions for 30 to 60 days.
?I?m told a few submissions are still here and trickling in, and we will alert those submitters about the delay and return any items and payment as requested,? he wrote. ?When we officially reopen for submissions, look for an entirely new label with a better design, more information and clarity.?
Feigenbaum said people can expect a ?different result? than might have previously been expected on submissions.
?We will be much tougher on submissions than the ?old? PCI,? he wrote. ?The new PCI coins will stand on their own in the marketplace. And David Lawrence Rare Coins will stand behind the new PCI with market support. We will make an active two-way market in the new PCI slabs.?
PCI was founded around 1986 using a larger slab that incorporated a full color picture, he wrote. In 1991, PCI acquired the assets of Hallmark grading service and switched over to the Hallmark slab around the time of the Chicago American Numismatic Association show that summer, he said.
?The early PCI holders were also well respected and savvy collectors and dealers alike still covet the pre-2001 green-label PCI coins,? Feigenbaum said. ?Starting around 2001, the company changed hands a few more times and new label colors were introduced and the quality of the grading seems to have suffered as well.?
Feigenbaum said it is his goal to bring the same professionalism and integrity exhibited by DLRC to the grading of coins by PCI.
?The new PCI will bring the classic standard of grading back to this company,? he wrote.
