Bitcoin Forum

Thanks for this news MJ. Can you share a pic of the Kialara with a recognizable item (like a quarter or another slabbed coin) in order to give perspective of its size? It must be pretty big.

Indeed, quite large compared to a standard sized slab

The only one I do not have on hand to show off is one of the Casascius bars, because they all got sent to Stacks.. 8) :P :D

For reference is a 1 btc Casascius brass

And I am a little miffed at the Microsoul inner holder (and the Alpen bar too), as they can move side to side with a good shake :(

I like the solid inner holder seen for the Kialara and 1Holdclub bar and also a few of the early Cas bars that were graded came that way

They also graded the smaller 1oz 1Hodlclub ingots..... wonder if they would grade the larger 5oz ingots or the 65g Moon Passes?

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2024/02/28/fujVD.jpeg

Any idea about the older Kialara bars?  I hate NGC as a company (though not fond of PCGS customer service of late either as a PCGS rep told me just a week or so ago they don’t grade “fantasy coins”. Replied w proof they do, even with a link to their site and got no reply back. Some unprofessional bs) but their holders are way nicer for coins with the brackets holding them in place. Better slabs too imo.

As for bars, not sure which I prefer between the two..but thrilled PCGS is doing this nonetheless. Knew it was inevitable..


https://i.ibb.co/GWjnDBY/IMG-9263.jpg (https://ibb.co/1rx7Nhy)
https://i.ibb.co/g7kqwLb/IMG-9262.jpg (https://ibb.co/cv4ftSK)
https://i.ibb.co/YdyXVCS/IMG-9259.webp (https://ibb.co/T0b1NfG)
https://i.ibb.co/VN5SWF3/IMG-9260.webp (https://ibb.co/yR7ynzV)
https://i.ibb.co/DMpnH6Q/IMG-9261.jpg (https://ibb.co/rpsJRLH)
https://i.ibb.co/ZXfM77L/IMG-9264.webp (https://ibb.co/r0QwNN7)
https://i.ibb.co/JzFxBNN/IMG-9265.jpg (https://ibb.co/BgK4zmm)
https://i.ibb.co/JCdmqhS/IMG-9266.jpg (https://ibb.co/TrTY1CN)
https://i.ibb.co/T8jNZWC/IMG-9267.jpg (https://ibb.co/k8bPpmd)

Wen Squirrelbits!

Grts Tank

Will he “allow this” ? That might break his no info to be posted as they are to remain “mysterious” rule  ::)

Confirming that PCGS will now grade the 65g silver/gilt 1Hodlclub Moon Passes :D

that's really good news and would make me interested for my Kialara bars.
what are the prices for grading a bar in this case?

Currently here are the PGCS fees:

$40 Regular service. Has been taking about 4-5 months currently
$70 Express service. Has been taking about 1-1.5 months currently
$150 WalkThrough service. Usually takes about 1 bussiness week.

There are other tiers of service, but I have not used them
Banknotes/Polymerbits,etc have a separate grading form and fees.
The average to grade a note even with a lower tier level is about $40-$50, but does not take as long as the coin/bar grading. I have had good experience where most are returned within a 2-3 month period without any expedited service fee.

Looking at the fee chart, we may need to move to the "Rarities" tier pretty soon :P

Hope this helps you make an informed decision on what items to grade. :D

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2024/03/13/ylRKJ.png

PCGS charges a $10 handling fee and then a return shipping fee based on the amount of items and their value. Can range from $23 to $100 or more.
Also, there would be a shipping to PCGS fee from the person who submits them, unless dropped off at a coin show where PCGS has a table/booth
And they do not allow walk in service at their facility out in California

Prices are pretty steep. I wonder if one could use the economy service for crypto coins

I would think yes, but have not used that level of service. I imagine the turn around time to be quite long....
And there are not too many coins left that fall under $300 evaluation... even unloaded coins are fetching above this on Stacks

For unloaded and low loads, might be able to use econonmy if the coins haven't been sold at an auction before, ex Stack's Bowers.  Once sold at an auction, typically it's linked to the PCGS# in the pop report and the selling price(s) can be seen.

I have updated the list in the OP.
Have added a few more that PCGS does now grade and also added a list of items that they will not currently grade.
Weird that they will not grade a Cas Bowl coin being that it is just a token... but maybe they will only grade physical cryptos if they have a hologram ???

One thing I would like to add is that PCGS won't grade or slab if the item contains profanity.  Just don't want anyone wasting their time unless they want to chance it.  My MYBITS Pennywise bits had this happen because of the word shit followed by coins, though still an excellent, great coin with a prominent, relevant message.  I have no regrets!

   seems kind of silly that profanity is the cutoff. I guess that rules out Squirrel bits being graded by them.

Maybe a lot of them but there are also some SquirrelBits without profanity.  Perhaps this will change with PCGS but I wouldn't hold my breath as this apparently is a longstanding thing with them, even though I believe you would almost have to go down the rabbit hole to explicitly find where this is published.

Finally back in hand this morning...

The new slabs for the larger Kialara and 1Holdclub 5oz are HUUUUUGGGEEE :O

They will also slab the CaribbeanTreasures copper bars.

Regular sized slab with MyBits Lion in the middle shown for comparison

2nd picture shows a better size comparison of all the slabs

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2024/03/27/Vdhrv.jpeg
https://www.talkimg.com/images/2024/03/27/VdcPb.jpeg

That HODL Club "The Times" bar is nuts! I've never seen that before!  :o

Freaking awsome, makes me want to buy a hodlclub times now just for this...

Just received back a newly slabbed 60mm Squirrelbits coin :D
Although it is limited since most of the 60mm coins produced have profanity on them, which PCGS will not grade.

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2024/05/24/LwKvN.jpeg

NIce  , super nice,  would love to grade most of my coin.

Good one profanity. ajaj . 

I love that coin. time machine ,  if am correct  its a set of 3 60mm coin .   :D

Wowzers these are some real lookers MJ! That is what I would call an Arsenal of BARS! Loving this! I wonder what the label would look like for buyer funded pieces? Will they accept them and authenticate even if they are note funded as well?

Also that silver mybits lion is so sick!!! Congrats to whoever got that high grade, even though it was just shown for comparison. The times piece is definitely quite a showcase piece! That slab looks like it could really stick a wedge in something haha. As for your comment on how the Alpen bars are not fixated properly within the slab, I wonder why they did that? Did the guy whose job that was to put them in just get lazy or something and not want to build a new mold I suspect? It still looks incredible in the slab either way. Just little details like that maybe we could give them some feedback or even question it.

Also, on this note I want to give a quick shout out to you MJ for being the best liaison for completely exceptional escrow/grading service turn around & being an anchor in this  community. Keep up the great work m8!

I wonder what's up with the Kialara Artist series? They aren't bigger in size etc?

If I had to guess, it is because they are not keyed/assembled and/or do not have a hologram attached
The 3 examples I listed above along with the Cas Bowl Coin would indicate this is their reasoning

Update:

PCGS will NOT grade Casascius 2FA 1000 BTC gold coins

What was the reasoning?

That is a great question.
They have graded 2 other Cas 1000 BTC coins, but they were the loaded ones with address that was verifiable
Possibly due to them being 2FA coins? ???
Interesting since they have graded some of the 2FA bars

The reasoning is they are clowns and have no true path to jack shit for any of our collectibles. Send something in one day they won’t grade but the next they likely will. They are clearly poorly managed, I mean how hard is it to have a 5mn meeting to discuss how grading is to work in “this” space. Or print a “crypto grading guideline “ and hand it out to all graders.  I did go to business school in college, but learned this stuff in 3rd grade.

If anyone has a relationship w PCGS that extends enough to be able to get a reply from them (my success rate has been like 50/50) can you please ask who authenticates for them? My guess Elias, which is laughable, but maybe I’m wrong.  They need to understand that their authenticator is not named MinerJones or Tweetious and is almost assuredly unqualified, which will lead to bad things down the road (my guess is they stop grading our coins in under 2 years).

I'm confused. I don't see an MSxx grading for Kialara. Are they not actually giving them a grade? Or am I missing something?

Based on the items above, they're being graded as "Genuine (80)" (PCGS tacks on the grade code to the end of the population).

You can verify this by looking up the certificate, for example https://www.pcgs.com/cert/49423411 for a Kialara.

That does seem to imply they're unwilling to grade them for value, but will still slab them and do a cursory authentication check.

Hello grading family! :P

News from PCGS today:

I received a phone call today about one of my submissions...
Seems like they will no longer accept any crypto/bitcoin submissions under the "Regular" tier grading level
All grading now need to be either "Express" or "Special Issue", both which have a base cost of $70 per the representative.
So now that means for a single crypto item to now be graded with PCGS, it will be at a minimum $117 ($70 grading, $10 PCGS handling fee, $27 return ship (based on value), and $10 ship to PCGS)

Wow!