NGC Chairman and Passionate Collector Mark Salzberg Explains His Love of Coins

Mark Salzberg loves coins.

They are the inspiration and foundation of the company he has built and leads. They are the objects in which he invests his time to study and his personal fortune to collect.

Like any great love, Salzberg’s is a combination of logical admiration and visceral enjoyment.

It’s rare to be granted a glimpse into what spurs someone to pursue something. But it’s just those kinds of insights that Salzberg recently gave me when he allowed me to record him talking about five favorite vintage world coins in his personal collection and how professional third-party grading and encapsulation protect their value.

Salzberg, in the 10-minute video I introduce, talks about the five coins, their condition, the terminology of coin grades and why he finds them so exceptionally appealing.

The five beautiful coins he discusses, with links to the part of the video about them specifically, are:

• An 1895 New Guinea Gold 20 Marks graded NGC PF 67 Cameo.
• An 1894 New Guinea Silver 5 Marks graded NGC PF 67★.
• An 1847 Great Britain Silver Gothic Type Crown graded NGC PF 68★ Cameo.
• A Sardinia, Italy, 1815 Half Scudo graded NGC MS 67.
• An 1825 4 Escudos from La República Federal de Centro América, a sovereign state that only existed from 1823 to 1841, that is graded NGC MS 65★.

Sebastian Wieschowski has worked as an author with a focus on numismatics and precious metals since 2007. His articles have been published in magazines such as MuenzenRevue, MoneyTrend, Coin World and the Journal of East Asian Numismatics. He is the author of the Bullion Book and the Fake Coin Bible and a graduate of the School of Economic and Political Journalism in Cologne, Germany.

This is a guest article. The thoughts and opinions in the piece are those of their author and are not necessarily the thoughts of the Certified Collectibles Group.