What exactly is the sniffer and how does it work?

[copper toning]

I would also like opinions as to how you feel about a machine helping to grade your coins.

 

I just signed up to the pcgs forum. I have not made any post and do not know if I like the feel of it so far which may be since it is new.

 

Any how I was reading a thread regarding a toned coin in an NGC holder which went for moon money. A few posters made a comment that they would want the coin sniffed.

 

I personally feel that a machine is not all that reliable. More importantly it takes much of the intimacy out of coin collecting at least to me.

 

Thoughts?

[newprepper]

just a guess, but probably checking for any chemical residue thay may be left on the coin.

[copper toning]

I am sure that is what it does but I would like to know how it works. Seems to me 100 year old coins that are toned or not may have come into contact with many things.

 

If the toning is visually MA does it still get sniffed?

[newprepper]

Here you go

 

http://www.coinweek.com/coin-grading/coin-rarities-related-topics-the-introduction-of-the-pcgs-coin-sniffer-to-detect-doctored-coins/

[copper toning]

Thanks that was a very informative article. Perhaps the sniffer may have a role in the hobby. I am going to soak on it and wait for some who have been collecting for decades to chime in.

[e1cnr]

it detects make-up applied but not removed for enhancement purposes ->

 

it is very common for coin doctors to add putty, films, waxes, gels and oils to cover or deflect attention from imperfect areas of coins and/or to give coins an artificially induced false ‘attractiveness'

 

 

Even though it does help protect collectors from coins turning in the holder, the top grading services 'guarantee' their grade, so if a coin drops enough points that even novices can tell the coin no longer grades what is on the holder, the TPG ends up paying out on their guarantee.

 

 

So many people see who it helps the most, no matter how you spin it.

[RWB]

A few idle thoughts….

 

Some of the collector confusion is probably due to the “sniffer” name. The device doesn’t detect vapor produces from the coin’s surface. Rather, it examines the change in absorption (and presumably, spectrum) as light is reflected from different parts of the surface. The “ray gun” does much the same but using electrons instead of photons. (It’s difficult for me to understand how the “ray gun” can be of much use when not carefully aligned with the coin and the electron detector.)

 

A third method not described would be to sample the volatile products produced by foreign materials that were added to a coin by a crook.

 

[FILTHYHOARD]

I bet if the coin which sold for moon money was in an old PCGS holder, that the coin wouldn't need to get "sniffed" at all