Komisaruk

Sorry to hear of your bad experience. I have had a similar though less costly difficulties with PCGS Europe. I took out gold membership to have a few coins slabbed by PCGS and submitted two at the London Coin Fair last June. Despite my collectors club membership number being clearly written on the forms completed at the time of submission, I was still charged 69 Euros for standard membership. My efforts to try and get this sum refunded included a couple of e-mails to PCGS Europe in Paris, a letter to Don Willis, President of PCGS in the USA, a phone call to PCGS in the USA where I spoke to someone who basically said "it's not our problem, take it up with PCGS Europe", and finally a phone call to the Paris office where I was reassured that something would be done. The end result was.... nothing happened! I finally managed to get some satisfaction when I submitted 2 more coins to be slabbed at the London Coin Fair last November. I told the PCGS Europe representative my story and managed to get them to agree to waive the charge for returning my coins by FedEx (42 Euros). This eventually happened but not before they had still charged me for shipping on the subsequent invoice and I had to get in touch with Dominique Lucbernet (the manager of PCGS Europe) to get it corrected! It was not entire sum that I was owed (69 Euros), but I had come to the conclusion that it was better than nothing and I was tired of wasting further time and money chasing them. If you can manage to get to a coin fair where PCGS are represented and talk to someone face to face, this would probably be the best way to get something sorted. After my experience with PCGS I won't be extending my Gold membership for another year. The incompetence (I hope) of the Paris office and the indifference of the headquarters in the US has put me off this company.

I bought a fairly expensive coin through a proxy bid at a recent auction which was described as "GEF and lustrous". However when I sent it for grading and slabbing by PCGS it was returned without a numerical grade but with the description "tooled UNC details". A definition of tooled that I found with a quick google search is "smoothing of a coin's fields to remove scratches, corrosion and other forms of damage or to the restoration of lost details through use of a graver or knife". I did not spot any obvious tooling on the photos posted on the auction website or when I received the coin, but it was picked up by the graders at PCGS. Since the coin was not given a numerical grade I expect this will have an effect on its value when I try to sell it. How much do you think it would affect the price? Also, since the auction description has no mention that the coin has been tampered with, should I be entitled to a full refund if I reject the coin because it is not as described in the catalogue?

Here are the pictures of the reverse. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

I managed to take some pictures of the 1802 third guinea using a microscope. I cannot show the whole coin in one image because the magnification is too great, so I have taken multiple images to cover both faces. I will try and post these in subsequent messages. If you see anything suspicious, I can take some pictures at higher magnification and play around with the lighting to investigate a particular area. I contacted PCGS Europe and they said that the details-tooling grade was given because "It appears that around the bust area it was smoothed "

This coin was submitted to PCGS Europe, so I guess it stayed in Paris for grading. I will try to obtain an explanation from them for the tooling designation. Thanks again for your wise words.

Thanks for your comments. This is the coin: LCA 154 (Sept 2016) Lot 3026 - Third Guinea 1802 S.3739 GEF and lustrous I have examined the slabbed coin with a hand lens and I don't see anything suspicious, but I'm not really sure what I should be looking for. What do you think?

Just been looking through the catalogue of the upcoming coin auction and noticed that none of the silver coins are described as dipped. Is this because they were not dipped or is this an accepted practice that is not worthy of comment and doesn't detract from the value? If I were buying a coin described as having full lustre, I would like to know whether or not this was achieved by dipping. What are your thoughts?

Thought you might be interested to hear about my recent experience with PCGS. I decided to get a couple of nice coins graded/slabbed and took out Gold PCGS membership a few days before the London Coin Fair in June. I received a receipt of my payment ($149) and a customer number by e-mail. Unfortunately I joined too late for the 4 free grading vouchers to arrive in time, so I was unable to use these to pay for the grading of my coins. At the London Fair I submitted the coins to the PCGS Europe representative, they took my credit card details to pay for the grading and return postage (by FedEx), and I received numbered receipts for each coin. A couple of weeks later, I received an invoice from Collectors Universe Inc. PCGS Europe for the cost of the grading and postage. On inspection of this invoice, I noticed that they had also charged me €69 for "Collector Club Membership: 1 year" despite the fact that I took out Gold membership before submitting the coins (my customer no. is actually quoted on the invoice!). I immediately sent a reply asking for a refund of the amount I was charged in error. However, to date I have yet to receive any acknowledgement of this or a follow up e-mail sent to PCGS Europe or of another e-mail sent to PCGS in the USA. My latest attempt to obtain a refund has been a letter addressed to the PCGS President Don Willis. This should have arrived about a week ago, so I will give them another week to see what happens before considering my options. I am reluctant to send more coins to them for grading before I have received a refund. Oh, by the way, I did receive the graded/slabbed coins about a week after getting the invoice. The grade seemed a bit low on one (1826 Sixpence) and a bit high on the other (1897 US 20 dollars), but happy that both coins are now protected/authenticated.

Thanks for that azda. It is likely that I will get other coins slabbed in the future, so maybe a Gold membership would be useful. If I became a Gold member now, do you think I would be able to use a complimentary coin grading voucher to submit my coin for grading at the London show this Saturday?

In the March LCA catalogue, there are a number of coins that have been minted using the "wrong" blank. This may be a flan that is thinner or thicker than usual, or one made of a different metal. Some look like they were mistakes (or the mint workers were mucking about!), while others look like they were for a special edition. For example, some normally bronze pennies have been struck on cupro-nickel, either apparently mistakenly (Lot 2495 ) or intentionally (Lot 2406 ). Can anyone suggest (i) why mis-strikes on the wrong flan might occur and how rare they are, and (ii) what was the purpose of intentionally striking a coin on the "wrong" blank (e.g. the case of Lot 2406 - 1868 proof penny in cupro-nickel)?