Coin World has been the largest publisher of rare coin-related material for over 100 years. Whether gathering coin values over the years from hobbyists or launching the Coin World Marketplace for dealers to buy, sell and trade rare coins, Coin World has been a leader in the numismatic industry. One of the growing challenges to the hobby is fraud and the lack of transparency over pricing for the collector.
Impact
There is no consistent way to authenticate coins to ensure they are not counterfeit. There is also no current way to provide collectors with a mobile application that helps them track their own inventory, create wish lists of coins they may want to add to their collection and see market prices for various coins across a myriad of auction sites along with the data that Coin World has aggregated over the last 100 years.
Solution
CG Infinity developed both an iOS and Android mobile application that is integrated with an RFID tag that is affixed to each slabbed coin. When this occurs, a user can simply scan a coin with their phone (current phones capable of scanning of NFC tags) and up pops the coin and a summary of its history, grade and certification from a grading service. With this solution, users can create wish lists, manage their own inventory and track the historical pricing for a particular coin. Because each unique chip is authenticated and linked to a single coin, the authenticity of that coin is validated.
Result
Increased transparency is now available in the coin industry. Also, if for any reason, a chip has been tampered with or removed from a slabbed coin, the authentication will fail. Now, users of the mobile application can scan and determine if a coin they are looking at is the coin they expect, and they can either buy the coin and add it to their inventory or put it on a wish list for future purchase.