ARTICLE PROFILES SILVANO DEGENOVA

DiGenova's interest in the coin industry started at a young age, and by the time he started college at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, he was running a nearly full-time business.

By 1983, which was his junior year, the business had taken off. He decided to take a leave of absence from school to "play it by ear."

"The first full year, I think we did like $8 million in sales, and the very next year, 1985, we did something like $20 million, which in terms of today's dollars would be considerably more."

In the early 1990s, DiGenova moved to California, establishing his locations first in Laguna Beach and soon after in Newport Beach. Now, Tangible Investments offers a variety of fine collectibles, including high-end fashion, jewelry, art and furniture.

In 1986, DiGenova was involved in starting the Professional Coin Grading Service, or PCGS. The premier third-party authentication and grading company evaluates the condition and authenticity of rare coins, assigning a standardized grade based on the 70-point Sheldon scale.

It established a universal standard used by dealers and collectors, where higher numbers mean better condition. Through this process, experts verify that a coin is genuine, protecting buyers from counterfeiters. PCGS changed the coin collecting world, establishing a way that coins could be authenticated for value and sold on a market with unprecedented liquidity and trust.

Collectors could purchase and trade coins "sight unseen" — without laying their own eyes on it and instead relying on the guarantee of third-party grading and electronic dealer networks.

"We changed the parameters, (encasing) the coins in essentially a tamper-proof holder, and then we got other dealers to make a market so that these coins could actually trade sight unseen," DiGenova said. "That hadn't really been done on a large-scale basis, and as it turned out, that was a huge innovation in the coin business and the market."

To read the complete article, see:
How Silvano DeGenova Revolutionized the Rare Coin Market (https://www.lagunabeachindy.com/news/how-silvano-degenova-revolutionized-the-rare-coin-market/article_5c192d30-429d-4788-b9b2-48ff078648a7.html)

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