Regrade Downgrades?

alefzero

Used to be a PCGS coin submitted for regrade would not come back in a lower grade. However, I noticed that now it is a possibility, using a stated guarantee policy for compensating for a downgrade. So it is now a concern for those of us who do not crack an resubmit. Have people experienced downgrades under this and what was the experience? Do they simply do a difference in the the coinfacts price guide values?

alefzero

https://www.pcgs.com/Guarantee does have most of the information. But it is geared more toward the submitter request for assessment for downgrade or unauthentic under the Guarantee Resubmission service. But for regrades, this risk was generally associated with a crackout and raw resubmission for grading. A regrade in holder, in my considerable experience, always returned upgraded or in the same grade with a new cert number. Might be that downgrades under the regrade service remain very rare and exotic situations. But thought others might have experiences that relate to this. Would have to send a five-figure coin in and have it come back in a details holder for some arbitrary reason.

lilolme

It appears you have discovered the pcgs guarantee. I do not know of any changes to pcgs for regrades / reconsiderations as far as downgrades or counterfeit. That is the pcgs guarantee has been in place for a long time. See the linked article below. If on a regrade or reconsideration pcgs determines the coin is a counterfeit (or substantially over graded or worked on), then yes pcgs will invoke the guarantee and not re-slab the counterfeit coin (or substantially over graded coin back to the same grade). This is not as you stated in the OP as 'Used to be a pcgs coin submitted for regrade would not come back in a lower grade' or in your second post as 'always returned upgraded or in the same grade...'. The guarantee also will not be 'for some arbitrary reason'. There is a very small chance that the pcgs guarantee could be invoked on regrade / reconsideration and as far as I can remember or have known it has been this way.

Link to article showing how the guarantee has been in place for some time now and a few examples.

https://www.pcgs.com/news/pcgs-grading-guarantee-update

alefzero

I was always told in the past that it would come back in at least the original grade. I do understand the issue for counterfeits and something like active PVC contamination. As long as downgrades are pretty rarely done, it is not a big issue. I am looking to get variety attributions on some tags. The ones in old holders I thought to just leave because of the insane (in my opinion) importance and premiums (sometimes) on them in the market, I though I might send to regrade, rather than reholder, to at least get a shot at something more. These are early silver dollars. So it is often like trying to get a 55 from a 53, 45 from a 40 or even a 25 or 30 from a 20. Might just be best to leave unattributed. I can certainly grade coins. But we know there are subtle variations in assessments that can never be completely anticipated.

19Lyds

I remember submitting a coin for the Grading Guarantee after I discovered an 'X' scratched into an IKE Dollar.
They downgraded it by 1 point and sent me the difference in cost.
I was of the opinion that a coin which had been purposely defaced should have been given a no grade but I guess I was wrong?

MetroD

@alefzero said:
Used to be a PCGS coin submitted for regrade would not come back in a lower grade. However, I noticed that now it is a possibility, using a stated guarantee policy for compensating for a downgrade. So it is now a concern for those of us who do not crack an resubmit. Have people experienced downgrades under this and what was the experience? Do they simply do a difference in the the coinfacts price guide values?

Source: https://www.pcgs.com/Guarantee

Edited to Add:
I realize that the screenshot is specific to "guarantee resubmission". However, as I understand it, the terms of the guarantee also apply to "regrade" submissions, if the coin grades lower.

Source: https://www.pcgs.com/submissionform/usacoin.pdf
("Submission Guidelines"; Section #5)