Documenting an Obscure 2010 Moncolle Plus Victory Certificate

[BennyD]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share a small research story that started by chance and ended with the documentation of an item I had never seen referenced anywhere before.

While traveling in Thailand, I stumbled upon an unusual Pokémon certificate related to Moncolle Plus. The front clearly referenced the series, but the format and artwork didn’t resemble any standard TCG promo or prize card I was familiar with.

The first thing I did was run it through Google Lens.
To my surprise, nothing came up, no matches, no similar images, no listings, nothing.

After translating the Japanese text on the front and back, I learned that it was a “Consecutive Victory Certificate” awarded during official Moncolle Plus “Battle Stage Plus” events in Japan in 2010. These were given to players who achieved win streaks using the chip enabled Moncolle figures.

Even with that information, I still couldn’t find a single photographed example online that matched this exact certificate, especially not one with the same reverse side artwork.

At that point, I decided to submit it for grading, mainly for authentication and long term preservation.
The first grading service declined it due to a complete lack of reference material. In their words, there was simply nothing in their database to compare it to.

So I went back to research.

Over the next few months, I dug through:

Takara Tomy 2010 product releases, Archived Moncolle campaign material and much more.

The key breakthrough came when I found a promotional flyer from the 2010 “Shiny Legendary Beasts” summer lottery campaign.

The poses of Raikou, Entei, and Suicune on that flyer match exactly the artwork on the reverse of the certificate and the campaign dates align with the dates printed on the certificate itself.

That visual and chronological link finally provided a concrete connection between this certificate and a specific 2010 promotional program.

With that documentation, I resubmitted the item to CGC, including the research and source material. After their own internal review, they agreed to authenticate and encapsulate it, and added it to their census as a Documented Example.

To help future research on niche Pokémon items like this, I also added an entry to Bulbapedia so there is now at least one public reference point for this certificate.

As far as I can tell, this is now the first graded and publicly documented example of this specific Moncolle Plus Consecutive Victory Certificate.

I’m sharing this mainly as an example of how many “ghost items” from the Pokémon side hobby era are probably still out there. unlisted, undocumented, and easy to overlook.

If anyone here has seen similar certificates, event prizes, or Moncolle-era material, I’d be very interested to hear about it.

[BennyD]

Thanks for the welcome!

the first submission was actually to PSA. However, at that point, I hadn’t yet discovered the promotional flyer with the matching beast poses. I essentially sent it in ‘blind,’ and without a secondary source to verify it, they understandably couldn’t move forward with it.

By the time I submitted to CGC, I had completed the research and provided them with the primary sources the flyer, the event dates, and the visual link to the 2010 campaign.

So it wasn’t necessarily that CGC found a ‘secret’ database, but rather that they were willing to review the external documentation I provided and cross-reference it with their own internal resources. That’s my best guess, at least I don’t know exactly what goes on behind the scenes, but I chose CGC for this submission because of their reputation for being more comprehensive with niche or undocumented items.

[BennyD]

Hah don’t worry !
I suspect the 2.5 is largely due to the ink. Since it’s a victory certificate, it has a name/signature on it. I’m not 100% certain how CGC’s technical scale weights hand written ink on an item like this, but I’m guessing they might treat it as a significant flaw or ‘damage,’ which would explain the low score.

Honestly, I wasn’t really chasing a high grade with this one anyway. my main goal was simply authentication and long term preservation. Just having it officially documented and protected in a slab is the real win for me!

[eevee]

Cool little piece of history. I always wonder where the owners of these are now, and what they’re up to. With yours specifying “brass” after translation I would wager this is for 3rd place, right? Meaning a silver, and gold exist too?

[Drew12]

Very cool, and great job on all the research! I love the depictions of Ho oh and Lugia with the laurels on the top, very unique.

[BennyD]

Good question this was actually one of the points I spent quite a bit of time on during the research.

The Japanese text does indeed use a metal tier designation (真鍮認定, “Brass Certification”), which strongly suggests that a tiered system was intended (Brass / Silver / Gold).

In Japanese gaming and event culture, it’s quite common for competitive systems to be designed with multiple formal tiers, even if in practice only the lowest tier ends up being awarded. Higher tiers often exist as aspirational goals rather than something most participants realistically reach.

Given how niche and short lived the Moncolle Plus Battle Stage events were, it’s very possible that only the Brass tier ever saw real world distribution. If Silver or Gold required significantly longer win streaks, they may have been extremely difficult to achieve or never reached during the active lifespan of the events.

During my research, I couldn’t find a single photographed example, record, or written reference to a Silver or Gold version, which makes me lean toward the idea that Brass may have been the only tier practically awarded.

So while a tiered structure likely existed by design, higher tiers may be ultra rare or purely theoretical.

[azulryu]

If memory serves me right, @Dizzle knows some info on this.

[SolemnStar]

@BennyD

At that point, I decided to submit it for grading, mainly for authentication and long term preservation.