$20 Gold Came Back "Cleaned"
SVKen
Posts: 4 ✭✭
I'm new to PCGS. I have collected Civil War Tokens for over 50 years and have an extensive collection. Any tokens I acquired for my collection that were slabbed, I broke out for consistency with the rest of my collection and because the slabs took up so much room in the safe deposit box.
I am now collecting a few, more expensive coins, the birth years of various ancestors.
I recently purchased an 1874 $20 PCGS AU 58 gold shield cert 45747023. I broke it out following my earlier habit. (BTW, my breakout process is quite secure and has no impact on the coin.) Then I changed my mind and decided that this collection (many fewer in number) would be only PCGS Gold Shield. So I sent it in as a "raw" submission to be re-slabbed.
After breaking out the double eagle I noted some loose ob dirt and very carefully removed it with a rose thorn (much softer than coinage metals). In the attached PCGS before and after photos you can see the differences around the 12th star, the 1 and the 7 in the date. Look carefully at the fields - no little marks left, nothing. No liquid of any sort was used. I sent it back in "raw" to be regraded. I thought I would be a good scout and return the original 45747023 label to PCGS so that their pop count didn't get off. I can only think that the grader looked up the old photos and noted the difference. There is no way you can see anything looking at the coin with a 10x Hastings.
Questions
1. I really hate the "Cleaned" designation - makes me think of friend's transgressions of my youth: acid date buffalos, dull orange lincolns, and replated steel cents. Yes, I know, I should never have broken it out. What options would be best do you think?: a) ask for reconsideration?, b) break it out again and resubmit without any prior label? (or is this doomed to failure too?) Any recommendations as to how to do this? I mean, this really is exactly the coin it was before, minus some loose dirt around the date. c) leave it alone and take my lumps, d) other?
- What's with the picture color/lighting? Did PCGS change their technique? Or is it photographer dependent, or just variable? I much prefer the earlier, richer color picture IMHO. I got a number of gold coin pictures recently that have this lighter, washed out, appearance.
Comments
Sorry about you learning some of these things the hard way. Will try to address your questions below.
0% chance this happened. This coin is nearly bullion at this point. The grader likely spent less than 30 seconds with the coin.
The grading issue is likely due to the variability of humans factor. The coin was acceptable on the day when it was first graded and then deemed unacceptable the next time. Grading is not perfect and there will always be differences.
Looking at the coin, there appear to be a number of hairlines/scuffs (particularly in the left obverse and right reverse fields) that perhaps the grader interpreted as wiping rather than circulation. As you'll notice, the coin is now graded Uncirculated rather than AU. It's almost assuredly not the absence of a speck of dirt.
Again, the graders spent almost no time with this coin and made a quick decision; they were not pondering it at length.
Unless this particular coin has sentimental value, don't waste any more money grading. Sell it and buy an already graded example that you like. The spread between buying and selling prices will likely be pretty close to the cost of grading without the variability of grading results.
This has been a frustrating and known issue for years. The excellent photographer and developer of Trueviews @PhilArnold left for Great Collections a while back. Since then, the TVs have ranged from acceptable to absolutely horrific with a strong weighting towards absolutely horrific.
chopmarkedtradedollars.com
Thank you for your excellent insights! I appreciate your experience and recommendations.