RON DRZEWUCKI

THE COIN-GRADING AUTHORITY

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Ron Drzewucki, a longtime dealer and world-renowned expert coin grader, is now president of CAC Grading LLC, a grading and certification service in Virginia Beach, Virginia. In August 2024, he received the highest honor given by the Professional Numismatists Guild (a leading coin-dealer organization), the Abe Kosoff Founders Award. The annual award is presented in recognition of lifelong dedication to the numismatic community. Drzewucki has dedicated his life and extraordinary talents to the coin-collecting hobby and industry. In order for a coin to be graded and certified by CAC or any other leading certification service it has to be both authenticated and graded. Certification by a grading service is a two-step process. First step: The coin has to be determined to be genuine and unaltered. Second step: The coin has to be graded or rated on a scale of one through 70, where one is the lowest and 70 is nearly perfect.

How did you get involved with coins?

I was 10 years old and visiting my aunt and uncle, and my uncle had a cigar box full of Buffalo nickels, Liberty nickels, Wheat cents and Mercury dimes, among other coins, and I really wanted to know what they were. My uncle gave me a copy of A Guide Book of U.S. Coins by R.S. Yeoman, (the "Red Book"), which I used for my research for the first time. After I looked up the coins, I needed to know what they were worth, how they were graded and so on.

What was your last job, and why did you leave it?