Professional Coin Grading Service (www.PCGS.com) has been growing at a tremendous pace over the past year, prompting a series of new hires and promotions.
Among these are acquisitions of key talent from the numismatic world and other collectibles industries as well as notable in-house promotions.
"We’re bolstering staff in all areas of our company and at every level," reports PCGS Interim President Stephanie Sabin. "For example, we’re tripling the size of the PCGS Price Guide team from two experts to six, bringing on new talent to help coordinate events, and expanding our sales and product development teams. We want to make sure that PCGS has the best experts on hand to handle the robust increases in our coin and banknote submissions over the past 18 months that is driving remarkable growth at our company."
Among the newcomers is PCGS Director of Price Guide and CCE Justin Atkins, who is working directly with the PCGS Price Guide team to help expand pricing information, create insightful market analysis reports, and build the data available to users for free on PCGS CoinFacts (https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts).
"I am determined to facilitate growth while maintaining the integrity of our industry," says Atkins, who served for 20 years as a coin dealer and has a diverse background in business and education. "My goal is to usher dealers and collectors into the new digital era by enhancing our trading platforms. In addition, my priority for PCGS is to grow and educate the new generation of collectors through the development of the products offered."
Joining Atkins is Victor Bozarth, who becomes a PCGS Price Guide Editor after having spent more than 35 years as a coin dealer.
"Ironically, the founding of PCGS in 1986 was very important in my entry into the rare coin business as a full-time dealer," he recounts. "Professional coin grading by PCGS brought unprecedented business to the coin industry."
A self-described "coin wheenie," Bozarth has been attending coin shows for more than five decades, including nearly a quarter century operating Bozarth Numismatics and several years with Heritage Auctions. He brings a wealth of numismatic marketplace knowledge in his role with the PCGS Price Guide.
"Knowing markets and how both dealers and collectors react adds reliability and perspective to the PCGS Price Guide."
PCGS Senior Events Manager Samantha Dark joins the company at a time when more and more coin shows are back on the calendar following many months of cancelations. Among these important events are the Long Beach Coin, Currency, Stamp & Sports Collectibles Expo held three times a year in southern California and the PCGS Members Only Shows, the latter occurring throughout the pandemic with all local, state, and federal COVID-19 safety protocols in place.
"I’ll be overseeing all event logistics and operations for the Long Beach Expo and PCGS Members Only Shows," Dark explains.
"I hope to bring in new excitement and life to all our events especially coming off of a pandemic and not having the Long Beach Expo for 18 months," she adds. "My goals are to bring back must-see attractions to these shows to help increase foot traffic while raising awareness about the shows in their local communities to come out and attend." Dark also plans on increasing channels of communication with coin dealers and show visitors as well as bring the PCGS Members Only Shows to new and exciting locations.
Ryan Hoge joins PCGS parent company Collectors Universe as the organization’s first-ever Chief Product Officer, overseeing product management of PCGS and sports memorabilia grading subsidiary Professional Sports Authenticator (www.psacard.com).
"Naturally, we’ll be looking at how [new] products can help the company achieve its business objectives," says Hoge, a technology expert and longtime collectibles hobbyist.
"I’m also excited to deliver new value to collectors to make the hobby more fun and engaging," Hoge remarks, parlaying for Collectors Universe skills learned during his 16-year career with Microsoft. "Being able to bring new products to market or improve products that are literally used by billions of people every day is what makes Microsoft such a unique company. Now I’m excited to take the experiences I’ve had there to help build new products and improve existing services for collectors."
In addition to the many new faces at PCGS, there is also the promotion of longtime company veterans, including Christopher Demoray, who now serves as PCGS Director of Sales.
"My primary job at PCGS is to oversee and grow our Bulk Business all while building exciting programs for collectors and dealers alike," notes Demoray of his new role.
PCGS will soon be unveiling an exciting array of product offerings to further maximize security and value for the numismatic community and helping to spearhead these new opportunities for collectors and dealers will be Demoray.
"I am proud to have been a part of this amazing company for the last eight years and I look forward to contributing toward PCGS’s future success."
About Professional Coin Grading Service
Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) is a third-party coin and banknote grading company that was launched in 1986. Over 35 years, PCGS has examined and certified more than 47 million U.S. and world coins, medals, and tokens with a combined value of over $46 billion. For more information about PCGS products and services, including how to submit your coins for authentication and grading, please visit www.PCGS.com or call PCGS Customer Service at (800) 447-8848.
