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Posted By: warshawlaw

According to my Black's Law Dictionary, a "guarantee" is "a noun, to denote the contract of guaranty or the obligation of a guarantor" while a "guaranty" is "A collateral agreement for performance of another's undertaking." GAI guarantees its grading, while Lloyd's of London has issued a policy of insurance (guaranty) to GAI to pay for its grading errors (or so Rocchi told me when I spoke with him at a recent show). Common usage increasingly makes the two interchangeable, unfortunately, and editors and others not schooled in law are likely to change them around to suit editorial content or style without regard to the formal meaning.