I bought this coin in 1977 and carried it for 33 years.
They told me this past Saturday that it had been cleaned and that they would not give it a grade.
The picture documentation matches the coin perfectly from 1977 and it has not been cleaned by me.
The only abrasions that could have been caused by me is when I took it out of the carrier and placed it on a tablecloth to show some friends when I was 14 years old. They would be only on the back of the coin. I believe that the coin was probably cleaned before I got it and have no one to talk to about it because the owner of the shop is out of the business and the shop has been closed for years.
I posted the pictures in my album section if you would like to see them. I am totally new to this and have not had enough experience to get the pictures listed on this thread.
Don't let one body bagged coin get you down. If finances allow send it to NGC and see what happens.
Exactly, the grade, or lack thereof, from PCGS is just one opinion about your coin, though it is one that should be given plenty of weight. I can't really tell from your photos but it does look like a nice coin. But if you believe that the coin may not really be a cleaned example, I'd take it to the next coin show with you and show it to several dealers for their opinions. If every one of them tells you it's definitely cleaned it may be a waste of money to send to NGC or resubmit to PCGS. But if several of them tell you they disagree with PCGS's first look, then maybe a resubmission would be worthwhile. Good luck.
You can of course do as has been suggested and submit the coin to NGC if you like. However, after viewing your pics (not the best btw) I think I'd have to go along with PCGS, the coin is not gradeable.
Now they may have called it harshly cleaned, and it does kind of have that look. But the right wheat stalk is covered with horizontal scratches. Now they could be from a harsh cleaning or they could be damage from something else. But they would render the coin ungradeable no matter what caused them in my opinion.
The top-tier grading companies will not grade "problem coins": those which have suffered damage additional to circulatory wear. Of course, you can still assign a grade to the coin, but the coin most likely will not catalogue the same sort of price one would expect an unblemished coin of that grade to reach.
Both PCGS and NGC will now encapsulate problem coins--ANACS has been doing this longer than any service with their details grade.
I had a couple of early $5 pieces that were in holders--a dealer thought they were undergraded, on submission to NGC raw, they came back ungraded, body-bagged. I submitted to PCGS, and they came back in 50 and 53 holders. An early $10 piece that a dealer thought was undergraded--to him it looked like a "62", came back when it was submitted to NGC as "bent" and was body bagged. Go figure!
With gold, I think ANACS is more liberal than N/P, if the coin has nice luster or toning, they may holder it without the conditional grade, even if it has minor problems. ICG has been a pretty strict grader in my experience.
It provided you with 33 years of pleasure too, so don't overlook that. Even if it ain't gonna make you rich.
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BTW, what year is it? I only saw the reverse.
I would second that unless you need a coin assigned a grade that can be traded sight unseen. If it is in a P or N holder, I can call up national dealers and get an offer right off the bat. If I have MS gold coins in ANACS holders, I know of no dealer who will make a sight unseen offer for the coin, and even if the dealer sees it, he can easily argue it is "AU" not "BU" because it isn't in the holder. I recently re-submitted a coin to one of the two, that had come back in a body bag as "cleaned". This time they gave it an AU grade.
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Originally Posted by hiho 
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