An increasing number of comments from both collectors and dealers suggest that through grading and re-grading, pedigrees of many important coins are being lost or even intentionally dropped by submitters.

Lost provenances include important and historic pedigrees such as "Garrett," "Norweb," "Pittman," "Eliasberg" and "Clapp."

Knowing that a particular coin was once part of the famous Eliasberg Collection, for example, normally adds monetary value to that coin and conjures up memories of the collection in which it once resided.

The Eliasberg Collection, formed by Baltimore banker Louis Eliasberg Sr., was the only complete collection of United States coins assembled by date and Mint mark.

Some of the Eliasberg coins were traced to early collector George H. Clapp, from whom Eliasberg purchased a number of important coins.

We are informed that many of these pedigrees are now lost. One reason is that the Eliasberg coins were auctioned as "raw," or without having been graded by a third-party grading service and encapsulated.

To get these coins graded and pedigreed to the collection, purchasers had to arrange to submit them through an authorized dealer.

Some pedigrees may have been lost if the submitters did not tell the submitting dealers about the pedigrees or if a grading service submission form was not filled out properly.

Other pedigrees have been intentionally left off coins by submitters who, with experience, believe a coin's grade will be upgraded from how it was cataloged. This avoids the next buyer questioning a Mint State 66 coin, for example, saying, "it was only graded '65' in the Eliasberg sale."

Another reason is that a particular coin may have been "doctored," cleaned or otherwise altered. The grading services are usually pretty good about spotting doctored coins, but sometimes new techniques get past the graders until they catch on.

No standard premium is attached to the values of pedigreed coins, but posted premiums have ranged from 10 to 50 percent for coins linked to great collectors and historic U.S. collections.