Why is the purchase of a certified coin so important?  Certified coins are coins that have been appraised by an authority, such as the American Numismatic Association Certification Service, the Digital Coin Grading Service, the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation, the NumisTrust Corporation, and the Independent Coin Grading Service.
These organizations do professional appraising, as do a handful of others.  Why not?  Coin collecting is a million dollar business and nobody wants to take any chances.  No one wants to pay thousands or even millions of dollars for a piece that could turn out to be counterfeit.
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