PMG Celebrates 15 Years, Nearly 5 Million Notes

Paper Money Guaranty® (PMG®) is celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2020, a year that will also see the world’s leading third-party paper money grading service surpass 5 million notes certified. Both of these milestones of longevity and volume are unparalleled achievements in third-party paper money grading.

PMG graded its 1 millionth note just five years ago as it celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2015. Since then, interest in its expert and impartial certification services has grown at a tremendous pace, as more collectors and dealers around the world have entrusted their notes to PMG.

Every note that PMG certifies is evaluated for authenticity, grade and attribution by multiple professional graders. PMG employs the world’s most experienced grading team, which includes approximately 20 full-time, professional graders. To ensure impartiality, PMG and its full-time graders do not buy and sell notes commercially, and strict procedures are in place to prevent consultants from influencing the grades assigned to their own submissions.

After grading, PMG encapsulates notes in the industry’s best holder. Designed for long-term preservation and extensively tested, the PMG holder provides superior optics, display and protection for notes. An informative, fully enclosed label gives the note’s description, catalog number, PMG grade and unique PMG certification number.

PMG-certified notes can be verified for free at PMGnotes.com/verify with their PMG certification number. Images are available for more than 3 million notes.

Importantly, every PMG-certified note is backed by the comprehensive PMG Guarantee of authenticity and grade, which provides recourse in the rare event that PMG makes a mistake. PMG’s guarantee, expertise, impartiality and advanced holder give collectors and dealers greater confidence. As a result, PMG-certified notes sell for higher prices and are more easily bought and sold.

“PMG has earned the trust of collectors and dealers worldwide by being a bastion of accuracy, integrity and stability in the paper money marketplace,” said PMG Chairman Mark Salzberg. “Our unwavering commitment to serve the hobby with the best possible services has led PMG to become by far the world’s largest third-party paper money grading service.”

PMG has now certified more than 4.7 million notes, including many of the world’s greatest paper money rarities. Just this month, PMG was chosen to recertify the incredible D. Brent Pogue Collection, a group of around 200 notes valued at $10 million. The stunning collection boasts many finest-known examples, special serial numbers, “Star/Replacement” notes and other rarities.

Among the other incredible notes PMG has graded is an 1891 $1,000 “Marcy” Silver Certificate, possibly the most desirable of all US banknotes and worth several million dollars. It was graded PMG 30 Very Fine after being submitted in early 2019 through PMG’s CrossOver service, which was established after PCGS Currency ceased operations in 2019. To learn more about this service, visit PMGnotes.com/crossover.

US 1891 $1,000 Legal Tender Note, graded PMG 30 Very Fine Click image to enlarge.

PMG also certified a US 1878 $5,000 Legal Tender that was printed as a specimen for the Chinese government and is believed to be the only $5,000 Large Size note of any issue in public hands. Graded PMG 25 Very Fine, it sold for $805,000 at a 2007 auction.

This US 1878 $5,000 Legal Tender graded PMG 25 Very Fine realized $805,000. Click image to enlarge.

Meanwhile, a PMG-certified modern note, a Singapore 2015 50 Dollar Commemorative with a Serial Number 1, realized an impressive $400,000 at a 2018 auction in Asia. The note is graded PMG 67 Superb Gem Uncirculated EPQ.

This Singapore 2015 50 Dollar Commemorative with a Serial Number 1 graded PMG 67 Superb Gem Uncirculated EPQ realized $400,000. Click image to enlarge.

PMG has certified around 2.5 million Chinese notes, including rarities from the Yuan Dynasty through the modern era. Among the latter are two recently certified examples of a very rare China 1975 2 Yuan Proof featuring blue-collar hero Wang Jinxi. Both examples of this unissued design are graded PMG 62 Uncirculated and one was sold at auction in March 2019 for $240,000.

This People’s Republic of China 1975 2 Yuan Proof graded PMG 62 Uncirculated realized $240,000. Click image to enlarge.

PMG has grown into a truly global paper money certification service in its 15 years of operations. It now has offices in Sarasota, Shanghai, Hong Kong, China, Munich and London; 19 Official Submission Centers and thousands of Authorized Dealers.

PMG also offers comprehensive educational resources in five languages on its websites: PMGnotes.com (Global), PMGnotes.cn (China), PMGnotes.hk (Hong Kong, China), PMGnotes.de (Germany), PMGnotes.uk (United Kingdom), PMGnotes.kr (Korea) and PMGnotes.in (India) . These resources include the PMG Population Report, which lists the notes that PMG has certified by type and grade, and the PMG Registry, which helps collectors to organize and display their collectors.

These locations and resources have made the hobby more educational, more accessible and more vibrant than ever before.

Collectors and dealers can join PMG’s 15th anniversary celebrations by getting a PMG 15th Anniversary special label for free for all modern banknotes submitted in 2020. (Grading fees still apply.) The label features PMG’s iconic scales logo — which represents its accuracy, consistency and integrity — above the words 15 YEARS. To request this label, write “PMG 15th Anniversary Label” on your submission form. The label is available through December 31, 2020.

A modern US banknote with the PMG 15th Anniversary Label. Click image to enlarge.

To learn how to stay connected with PMG, visit PMGnotes.com/connect.

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