Hi, before you go about doing so, I suggest reading about some of the pros and cons about the whole note Third Party Grading system. Then you can make a decision, but I just want to make sure that you are aware of the issues surrounding them.
Hudson has made an excellent suggestion. PMG has certified a huge number of notes and by inspecting those that have appeared at shows, at public auctions and on eBay the consensus opinion is that PMG grading is quite
erratic. I cannot comment on CCGS grading as they have certified far fewer notes, although I have formed the general impression that they are less erratic.
As mathematicians are aware, there are two distinct issues when one is studying a large quantity of data, i.e.
accuracy and
reproducibility. In the present context the data pool is a large number of certified notes. Firstly there is the issue of
grading accuracy (i.e., being able to assign the correct grade) and secondly there is the issue of
grading reproducibility (i.e., being able to assign the correct grade on a consistent basis). Being
erratic implies not being able to assign the correct grade
on a consistent basis. Having said that, it's important to remember that just because you may be consistent in your grading doesn't mean that you are being accurate as you could be making the same systematic error of judgment every time!
PMG appears to have problems because they certify such a huge number of notes from all sorts of different issuers (US, Canadian, world, old & modern) and they naturally tend to get careless from time to time. After all, the notes are being graded by human beings and not by machines. If you were to take a random selection of 100 PMG certified notes you would undoubtedly find a few (perhaps 5-10?) that have been overgraded and a few (perhaps 5-10?) that have been undergraded. We have all seen some PMG horror stories on eBay, e.g. an obvious VF certified as an AU, a pressed VF+ certified as an AU, a weak AU certified as an UNC, and the like. Perhaps a disproportionate number of these poorly graded notes tend to find their way onto eBay as sellers might be embarrassed to display them publicly at shows?
Certified grading errors can make a huge difference in the catalogue value of a note. At the end of the day it's up to the buyer of a certified note to decide whether the advertised grade is reasonable or not. If you buy a note blindly based purely on its numerical certified grade then you could come to grief.
Certified notes that have been obviously overgraded will tend to be left in their holders whereas certified notes that have been obviously undergraded will quickly be removed from their holders and sent in again to be re-certified at a higher grade! We've seen these things happen with certified coins in the past.
