Graded vs Ungraded Coins: What Our Real Auction Prices Show

NGC & PMG Grading Guide · From Our Auction Ledger

Graded vs Ungraded Coins: What Our Real Auction Prices Show

We checked over 3,400 coins that sold in seven real auctions, ours and other houses’, and asked one question: at these prices, when does the grading fee make sense?

The short answer

In our own last two E-Auctions the median coin sold for £44, and at another UK ancients auction house it was £85. An NGC fee of £27 takes a big bite of either. Grading starts to make sense from around £100 a coin, and clearly above £250.

What this data can and cannot tell you. None of our own coins in these two sales were in NGC or PMG holders, so our results cannot show a graded-versus-raw premium. We therefore added data from five other auctions, including some with slabbed lots. Those lots are a mix of different coins, so they cannot prove a premium either. What the real prices do show is where the grading fee is small compared with the coin, and where it is not.

The ledgerOur own 210 real sales, in four numbers

We took every lot that sold in two of our E-Auctions on NumisBids: E-Auction 6 (18 May 2025) and E-Auction 7 (28 Sep 2025). The coins range from Greek silver to Islamic gold, and from £15 dirhams to a £3,000 gold coin.

620lots offered

210lots sold

£21,048total sold

£44median price

The average sale was £100, but the average is pulled up by a few big lots. The median is the better guide: half of the coins sold for less than £44, and 115 of the 210 (55%) sold for under £50.

Where the money isMany cheap coins, and a few that matter

The chart compares each price band’s share of the lots with its share of the money. The two shapes are very different.

Share of lots vs share of money

210 sold lots, E-Auctions 6 and 7. Hammer price as shown on NumisBids.

Share of lotsShare of money

Under £2547 lots

22%

£25–4968 lots

32%

11%

£50–9943 lots

20%

13%

£100–24934 lots

16%

23%

£250–49913 lots

19%

£500 and over5 lots

30%

18 coins, only 9% of the lots, brought in 49% of the money. At the other end, the 115 coins under £50 made up just 14% of the total. Grading effort is better spent on the first group than the second.

The fee testWhat the grading fee does to each price band

Here is the same ledger with a simple test. We take the median sale price in each band and set our NGC fee against it. The fees are our current prices for the service, per coin, VAT included: Economy £27 for coins up to £250, and Standard £50 for coins up to £2,500.

Price band	Lots sold	Median sale	NGC tier	Fee as % of price	Verdict
Under £25	47	£18	£27	150%	Not worth it
£25–49	68	£31	£27	87%	Not worth it
£50–99	43	£65	£27	42%	Rarely
£100–249	34	£140	£27	19%	Maybe
£250–499	13	£301	£50	17%	Often
£500 and over	5	£850	£50	6%	Usually

Read the table honestly. The fee is only part of the cost. Shipping, insurance, handling and any conservation come on top. The verdicts are our reading of the numbers, not a promise. A slab only pays if it adds more to the coin’s value than the fee costs.

Try itDoes grading pay for your coin?

Enter what your coin would sell for raw, and how much extra you think a slab would add. The uplift is your own guess, so test a low one as well as a high one.

Grading break-even calculator

Value of the coin raw (£)

Extra value you expect from the slab

A bigger sampleIs our ledger typical? Compare another auction house

Our two sales are fairly small, so we checked a larger one. The Coin Cabinet is a UK ancients dealer that holds regular online auctions. We took every lot that sold in its Ancients Auction 29 (11 Dec 2025) and Ancients Auction 36 (30 Jul 2026), 1,071 coins in all, all priced in pounds.

	Our E-Auctions 6 & 7	Coin Cabinet Auctions 29 & 36
Lots sold	210	1,071
Median sale price	£44	£85
Sold under £50	55%	26%
Sold under £100	76%	56%
Lots of £250 or more	9%	19%
Their share of all money	49%	66%

The other house sells somewhat dearer coins, so its median is higher. The shape is the same, though: about one lot in five brought in two thirds of the money, and more than half of all coins sold for under £100. At a median of £85, a £27 fee still takes about a third of the price.

Slabbed lotsWhere NGC slabs actually appear in other auctions

We also searched the listings of three more large sales for lots that mention NGC, PCGS or PMG. Slabbed coins turned out to be a small share of what is sold, and they were not evenly spread.

Auction	Lots sold	Slabbed lots sold	Median, slabbed	Median, raw
Spink 25122 (Aug 2025), Islamic and Indian coins	387	31	£2,000	£350
Spink USA 394 (Jan 2024), ancient and world	747	51	$270	$200
CNG Electronic Auction 569 (Aug 2024), mainly ancient	1,011	10	$225	$225

Do not read this as a premium. These medians compare different coins. The slabbed Spink lots in August 2025 were mostly modern proof and gold coins from Oman and Egypt, which are worth far more than the typical raw coin in that sale. In the CNG sale the two medians were equal, and in the Spink USA sale the gap was small. A fair test needs the same coin, in the same sale, in both forms. We could not find enough of those to give you a figure.

What we can say is this. In the 2,145 sold lots we checked at these three houses, 92 mentioned a slab. That is about one in twenty-three. Slabs are common at the top end of the market, and rare among the everyday coins that make up most of what is sold. Our own ledger and the Coin Cabinet’s show the same split: most coins are cheap, and a smaller group is worth real money.

By coin typeWhat this looks like for the coins we sell

Abbasid silver dirhams

This was our biggest group: 89 sold between £15 and £250, with a median of £35. For a typical one, the fee is about three quarters of the price. These coins are lovely to collect, but they are rarely worth slabbing one at a time.

Umayyad dirhams

12 sold between £20 and £76, with a median of £36. The same logic applies. An exceptional, well-struck example is the exception.

Gold

Gold gave us the top result of the two sales, a £3,000 gold 5 Pahlavi. Beyond that, 14 gold dinars and sovereigns sold from £150 to £800, making £5,031 together. Gold coins are where a slab, with its Strike and Surface scores, is easiest to justify. The fee is a small slice of the price, and buyers of gold are more used to buying graded coins.

Groups and lots

One lot of ten Sasanian drachms sold for £850. Grading ten coins individually would add several hundred pounds. A group like this is usually better sold as it is.

A simple ruleThree questions before you submit

1. Is it worth £100 or more?Under £100, the fee takes a large share of the price. Over £250, it usually does not.

2. Is it special?Gold, a rare type, a famous ruler, or a coin from a set you are building. Common types in good condition seldom gain much from a slab.

3. Has it been left alone?A coin that has been cleaned will not grade as you hope. See our guide on the 7 mistakes that lower a grade.

If you can answer yes to all three, send us a photo. We will tell you honestly whether grading is worth it, and which tier suits.

The top endWhere slabbed ancient coins do show up

Our results sit mostly in the lower and middle price ranges. At the top of the market, slabs are common. When Roma Numismatics sold eight NGC-certified ancient gold coins in March 2022, the estimates ranged from £15,000 to £35,000, and each carried NGC Strike and Surface scores. Those are estimates, not sale prices, but they show where slabbed ancients tend to cluster: expensive gold coins with strong eye appeal.

That fits what our own ledger suggests. The higher the value, the more a certified grade helps and the less the fee matters.

MethodHow we built the numbers

Our own sales: Pashiz Coins E-Auction 6 (18 May 2025) and E-Auction 7 (28 Sep 2025), as published on NumisBids.
Other houses: The Coin Cabinet Ancients Auctions 29 (11 Dec 2025) and 36 (30 Jul 2026) for the price comparison, and Spink 25122, Spink USA 394 and CNG Electronic Auction 569 for the slabbed-lot count. All were read from NumisBids.
A lot counts as slabbed only if its listing text mentions NGC, PCGS or PMG. Some slabbed coins may not say so in the listing.
Spink USA and CNG prices are in US dollars. We did not convert them.
We counted only lots shown with a price realised in each sale. Lots that did not sell on the day are not included, and later E-Auctions are not included.
Prices are the amounts shown on NumisBids, before buyer’s premium, postage and any other charges.
Grading fees are our NGC prices as of October 2026, per coin, VAT included, and they can change.
Bands, medians and shares were calculated from the lot list. Rounded figures may not add up exactly.

QuestionsFrequently asked questions

Do graded coins sell for more than ungraded ones?

Sometimes. In the sales we checked, slabbed lots had a similar median to raw coins at two houses and a much higher one at a third, but those were different coins, so it proves nothing on its own. Look up recent sales of the same type and grade before you decide.

What is the cheapest way to try grading?

Choose a coin worth £100 or more, one you are happy to keep if the result is lower than you hoped. Economy is £27 for coins up to £250.

Is it worth grading a coin worth £50?

Rarely. The £27 fee would be more than half of the price, plus shipping and handling. Unless the coin is unusually important to you, keep it raw.

Does grading make sense for gold coins?

More often than for silver or bronze. In our ledger, gold coins sold for £150 and up, so the fee was a much smaller share. Ask us about the right tier for your coin.

Can you grade my coin if it was cleaned?

NGC can often still grade it, but cleaning is noted on the label and lowers the Surface score. Do not clean it further. Send us a photo first.

Will you update these numbers?

Yes. When we have enough slabbed coins in our auctions to compare fairly, we will publish a true graded-versus-raw comparison.

Sources

Not sure if your coin is worth grading?

Send us a photo and a description. We will tell you what it is, what it is worth, and whether a slab would pay for itself.

NGC submission form (PDF) Ask us about grading