Hello all.  Hope everyone is staying warm.  The Legacy Knights are dealing with a nice polar vortex here in the Midwest.  We are surviving.

I've been pondering this subject recently:  the point of Certificates of Authenticity.  What do they really accomplish, beyond giving someone a warm fuzzy feeling about a product they are buying?

Ever since I first started thinking about the topic, that warm fuzzy feeling has all but vaporized.  (Poor timing too, what with the polar vortex...)

Most C of A's say something to the effect that "this product is the genuine article, bla bla bla".  How can anyone possibly know that, just because a paper says so?

Well, if you trust the source of both the product and the paper, it might have some meaning.  But if you got the product right from the manufacturer, then you should know it's the real deal without an extra piece of paper, right?

Unless the manufacturer has subcontracted all their manufacturing to someone else to save money.  OK then, maybe that's why.  If there's a C of A included saying it's a genuine article made by the company in question, then it was definitely made by the company in question.

Unless, due to the legalese in the contract, the subcontractor is making them "on behalf of" the company in question.  Maybe that company can still legally say they made it, because subcontracting is part of their manufacturing process... i.e. the subcontractor is acting as an employee.  I don't know; I'm not a lawyer.

Well, at least we know if it was made in the US or not, because if it wasn't, it has to say "Made in [another country]" on it.  Sure.  With the influx of fake Morgan dollars and other coins into the US from China, who neither has to stamp "COPY" on their fakes or put "Made In" stickers on stuff they sell online, how certain are you of that?

And you do realize you can buy C of A's for various products online, right?

And why spend money on those, when most people have enough printing technology at their fingertips to make their own for whatever they want?

Feeling the polar vortex yet?

OK, so to be clear, I am definitely not advocating that anybody mock up a Certificate of Authenticity. 

And I'm also not categorically saying Certificates of Authenticity are always a waste of time.  But I have one of those minds that always looks for things like this.  Maybe I *should* have been a lawyer.

In my mind, about the only way you can unequivocally know that a coin, work of art, or any other object that typically comes with a C of A is truly the real deal, is to watch it being produced and never take your eyes off of it until it's in your hand.  But I'm a "chain of custody" kind of guy.

So you have to buy things with a certain amount of faith.  If you buy a US Mint coin at a coin shop, you know what the Mint packaging is supposed to look like (which can be faked).  You know that your coin shop proprietor has an account with a Mint products distributor (whom you do not know) where he gets them (through a delivery service whose chain of custody is permeable).  The distributor has a relationship with the Mint (involving a slew of people you don't know and can't keep tabs on), and the Mint has a charter from Congress (need I say more) to produce money to facilitate American commerce as well as products that can be sold for a profit.  You have to have faith that everyone in this chain is probably a pretty trustworthy individual; and that even if they aren't always, it's probably fairly difficult (and more trouble than it's worth) to try to pull a fast one and swap in some fake Mint products.  So if the package is still sealed, and you trust your local coin shop person... why would you need a piece of paper?

And once the product falls into private hands, what point is there to keeping that piece of paper with the product?

So I've been trying to study what, exactly, makes a C of A a worthwhile document, and not a fancy, but useless, scrap of paper.

A "wet signature" (ink on paper, actually signed, not photocopied) is comforting, because that puts the signer on the hook for what he or she is signing.  However, that only means something, if the C of A hasn't been separated from the product it certifies.  That paper could be attached to anything!

A C of A that is part of a security feature-- like those holographic stickers that you can't peel without destroying them when you open a video game or computer software-- is somewhat reassuring.  That is, until we read in the news about a counterfeit software ring busted with a whole truck full of holographic stickers that look real.

To the best of my discernment, unless that C of A very specifically and in detail describes the product it's authenticating, it's pretty worthless.  And even so, it's relying on security technology that involves anticounterfeiting measures.

In my mind, third party certification services offer a good bit of reassurance... particularly the type like NGC or PCGS, as they not only provide expert analysis and research, they give authenticated items a serial number that goes in a searchable database; and then they make it very hard to swap out a real coin for a fake one by sealing it in their holders.  I'm sure holders are possible to fake (maybe from that same place that's making all the fake Morgans)... but the combination of security features and authentication methods give you a greater reassurance.

OK, so what I've learned from this is this:  paper C of A's are only a weak form of reassurance.  Some are better than others; the more they describe unique, verifiable characteristics of the product they authenticate, the better they are.  It can in that sense be a reference checklist:  if it's real, it will have this and this and this feature.  Check, check, and check.  At that point you have to rely on a high work factor/low payoff situation; in other words, it costs too much in time, money, and effort, and the payoff is too little, for faking the object to be worth it to a criminal (NGC, PCGS, etc. all increase the work factor with their security features).  If you feel comfortable that's the case... then your C of A can simply guide you to the points to observe, and possibly provide you contact information for the manufacturer who can attest they did make it based on a serial number, date code, or other manufacturing characteristics.  If it does that, then it has some value.

If I'm way off base, keep in mind I'm not a lawyer.  :-)  I just started analyzing the subject.  Please feel free to point out something I've missed, even if it's obvious.

What do you think?  Are Certificates of Authenticity worthwhile?