Authentication and market terms used across Gauntlet Gallery listings, guides, and market pages — each explained in plain language so you know exactly what a claim means before you rely on it.
COA — Certificate of Authenticity
A document stating who verified the work and what was verified. Value depends entirely on the issuer — an artist, publisher, or recognized third party carries weight; a generic seller certificate does not.
LOA — Letter of Authenticity
A signed letter from an authenticator or previous owner describing the item and the basis for authentication. Common for autographs and memorabilia.
PSA/DNA — Professional Sports Authenticator / DNA division
Third-party autograph authentication service. Issues tamper-evident holograms with serial numbers you can verify in PSA's online database.
JSA — James Spence Authentication
Third-party autograph authentication service, widely accepted for music and sports signatures. Certificates carry serials verifiable on JSA's site.
Beckett (BAS) — Beckett Authentication Services
Third-party autograph authentication with online serial lookup, commonly used for signed music memorabilia and guitars.
OneCOA — OneCOA NFC certificate
An NFC-chip-backed certificate used for designer collectibles such as KAWS and BE@RBRICK. Tap the chip with a phone to load the digital record.
TrueCOA — TrueCOA blockchain certificate
Gauntlet Gallery's blockchain-anchored certificate: the item record is written to the Polygon blockchain and verifiable through the TrueCOA lookup.
NFC — Near-Field Communication
A small chip embedded in a certificate or tag. Tapping it with a phone opens the item's digital authentication record — hard to counterfeit, easy to verify.
AP — Artist's Proof
A print outside the numbered edition, traditionally reserved for the artist. Usually marked "AP" instead of an edition number; often commands a premium.
Edition / Numbering — Edition size and print number
Written as 25/450: print number 25 of an edition of 450. The number should match the documented release size for that work.
Provenance — Ownership history
The documented chain of ownership: invoices, gallery records, auction results, prior sales. Strong provenance is often worth more than a generic certificate.
Source cuts — Filtered data slices
In our market data, a "cut" is a filtered slice of the sales database — e.g. priced, dated sales at or above $90 for one artist. Cuts are defined so medians compare like with like.
Authentication guidance is informational and cannot replace review by the proper artist, publisher, authenticator, or specialist where required.