Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) recently announced its Vice-President and Grading Finalizer Ken Krah has decided to delay retirement once again and continue his leadership role at NGC.
Krah, who joined NGC in 1989 as a grading finalizer for vintage U.S. coins, decided to postpone his planned retirement because he was “excited about the rapid pace of NGC’s world coin growth, which has allowed him to see many more interesting and important coins,” according to a statement released by NGC last week.
“Although I look forward to retirement, the opportunity to remain part of NGC’s phenomenal growth is too great to pass up right now,” said Krah. “I look forward to seeing the great rarities that we will be entrusted with, as well as the chance to continue to shape our next generation of graders.”
‘SHARP EYE, REMARKABLE EXPERTISE’
Krah’s decision was also applauded by NGC Chairman Mark Salzberg.
“Ken’s sharp eye and remarkable expertise have helped build NGC into the world’s largest third-party grading service. We are fortunate that our extraordinary team of world coin experts will benefit from his guidance for even longer than we had anticipated.”
Krah now leads a team of 20 full-time world coin graders based at NGC’s offices in the U.S. and China.
The NGC grading team has certified more than five million world coins—more world coins than any other third-party coin grading service.
GREAT RARITIES
Among the world coins certified by NGC are some rarities and extensive collections, including:
- at least three Chinese coins that sold for more than $1 million USD: a 1910 Yunnan Spring Dollar graded NGC About Uncirculated-55, a 1992 Compass Gold 2,000 Yuan graded NGC Proof-69 Ultra Cameo and an 1898 Hunan L&M-378 Pattern Dollar graded NGC Specimen-67;
- the China 1897 Szechuan Ferracute Pattern Set, one of only three such sets known to exist;
- the most valuable English coin: an England (1344) Double Leopard graded NGC Mint State-62;
- the “King of South African Coins”: an 1898 Single 9 Pond graded NGC Mint State-63 Proof-like; and
- the legendary Eliasberg, Wa She Wong, Millenia, Newman, Benchmark and Stuart collections.
Krah became a professional numismatist in 1979. Upon joining NGC a decade later, he oversaw the launch of its world coin certification program, which made NGC the first third-party coin grading service to certify coins from most countries.