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Why does NGC cert lookup require grade?

8 posts in this topic

Isnt the cert number on its own unique? Or have the reached the point where they started repeating?

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7 hours ago, Morpheus1967 said:

I may be wrong, but I believe it's to help stop counterfeiting.  

I wondered if it was some half baked security idea. All you have to do is keep changing the grade drop down until it hits. I suppose that will slow down counterfeiting, by about 1 minute. Unless it locks up after a few wrong guesses.

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3 minutes ago, mumu said:

I wondered if it was some half baked security idea. All you have to do is keep changing the grade drop down until it hits. I suppose that will slow down counterfeiting, by about 1 minute. Unless it locks up after a few wrong guesses.

I just conducted a little test, using a real cert number, but trying different, incorrect grades. After (I think it was) the seventh incorrect attempt, I got the following message :

"Your lookup activity has exceeded our limits. Please try again later."

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1 hour ago, MarkFeld said:

I just conducted a little test, using a real cert number, but trying different, incorrect grades. After (I think it was) the seventh incorrect attempt, I got the following message :

"Your lookup activity has exceeded our limits. Please try again later."

I have sometimes wanted to see what else was in the submission and checked the coins before and after, going to be harder now.  :(

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Wouldn't do much to stop the counterfeiting. Usually they go to Heritage, find the coin they are counterfeiting, and get a certificate number from them.

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Think 'are you a robot' ? I'm quite sure this is done so that you don't know what other coins were submitted on the same ticket and thus by the same submitter. I've tried successfully in the past and have been able to determine the theme of the submission on a few of the early graded NGC coins I own. Cant do it any longer !

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My guess is it makes it more difficult for a 3rd party to fill the void left by NGC and creating a registry site that allows both NGC and PCGS certified coins. 

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