NCS & NGC Tell Us Your Thoughts or Experiences

I would like to start a thread about NCS and NGC and find out what you think and any experiences that you may have had or heard of in the past. If you have any questions you can post them here and hopefully someone will have the answer. One subject that I have come across over the years was when a coin is conservered would another TPG service bodybag them as being cleaned. And how would they know. Here is one of the stories i heard from someone a few years ago that submitted a coin to NCS then sent the coin to PCGS for grading and got bodybaged....To me this sounds a little fishy,,,like i said,,,,, How would they known.

Tell us your story,,,,,We all want to learn more about our great hobby.

 

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Sometime in mid-2005, NGC changed their policy and would allow only dealers to make appointments to pick up and deliver their submissions in person at the office in Sarasota. Prior to that, even collectors were allowed to make appointments. Since I only lived 1-1/2 hours away, I used to take advantage of it and bring my Mom along with me. She was in her 80's, but she always enjoyed the drive, and we would make it a point to stop at one of the Cracker Barrel restaurants that were scattered along I-75 on the return trip home.

On one such day when we made the trip to Sarasota, the NGC reception room was pretty hectic. There were three small private rooms adjacent to the reception area that were used for customers to check their submissions both prior to delivery or upon pick-up. These rooms were only about 8'x8', and on this particular day, the "suits" from Odyssey Marine were there to take delivery of the gold and silver coins from the SS Republic shipwreck. The room was too small for everyone, so the door was left open and some of the NGC staff was standing outside looking in as everything was checked. It was amazing! Stacked about 2' high on the floor inside the room, were shipping boxes with probably $100 million in gold and silver coins.

I realized that it was going to be a while before things would settle down to allow me to turn in my submission, so Mom and I stepped outside while I had a cigarette. As it happened, the head of NGC security was also having a cigarette, and he proceeded to tell us (even though I already figured it out) what was taking place. I mentioned that I would have loved to have been able to just hold some of those slabs in my hand for no other reason than because of the history that went along with them.

Naturally, that would have been impossible, but he asked us if we would like to see some of the other artifacts as they were being conserved. We were led through a secure entrance of the receiving dock into a fairly large room that was filled with artifacts from the SS Republic in various stages of conservation. There were small glass bottles that were used for medicines, all sorts of china, glassware, silverware, leather shoes, tools used by the ship's carpenter, even brass portholes with the glass intact, but there was one item suspended in a barrel of solution which just made my jaw drop. It was the ship's bell, nearly completely restored, and very clearly you could read the name - USS TENNESSEE - around the upper perimeter. I felt a shiver run up and down my spine. I'll never forget that day!

Chris

 

Wow Chris,,,,That was a very impressive story,,I loved it. Your Mom And you have been given a very rare treat to be given a personal tour of the NCS facilty and getting to see such wonderful thinks like the bell of the USS Tennessee,,I didn't even know that they conservered other things beside coins or numismatic objects. Your story was very interesting as well as enlighting. Thank you for sharing your wonderful and exciting experience with us all.

 

Thanks, Ice!

Chris

 

Well, since no one else has anything to add........

This was posted by Mark Feld on the NGC forums. For those of you who don't know Mark, he is a very knowledgeable dealer who is as honest as the day is long and just an all-around good guy. He used to be a grader for NGC, and this is from his personal recollections of those days at NGC.

 

I posted my most recent turn in and turn around time on another thread. It was about 31 days, including weekends, with them, from "received" to delivered. Granted I had turned them in about 4 days prior at the Whitman show in Baltimore.

I turned in 5 GSA Morgan dollars. They were shipped back to me USPS Registered mail. Had to go down to the Post office and sign for that package.

No issues with placing the order. No issues with the coins being delivered. Just really really wanted to get my coins faster. But hey, I got them. I also had them do the pictures for all and variety attribution for one.

Here's the variety:



(Serial number blurred so it can't be used in an eBay auction and so someone else can't claim it for their registry set.)

 

I like NGC, mostly because I'm an ANA member and don't have to join NGC to use them as graders.
I don't submit enough coins to make joining worthwhile.
Of course the downside is that I can't track my submissions through the grading process.
And their turnaround times are almost always half again as long as advertised.

NCS on the other hand is 0 for 1.
I had my collection appraised by a former major TPG grader.
He told me that one of my gold coins had PVC contamination.
That's not nearly as critical with gold coins as it would be with the other coining metals.
So I sent it in to NCS for "conserving".
They did nothing.
Apparently they can't recognize PVC contamination.
They took my money but left the coin untouched.

 

The turnaround time doesn't start until the coins are delivered to the NGC office in Sarasota. Did you include the 4 days at the show in your calculation? Even if you didn't, if you subtract 10 weekend days (assuming they were submitted on Friday or Saturday), the turnaround time was 21 business days. That seems reasonable to me. What tier did you use?

By the way, that's a nice VAM!

Chris

 

Ouch !

Every one of them oughta be body bagged if you ask me ! :devil: I grew up on the Gulf Coast and saw way too many. You never get used to 'em.

 

I thought it was funny, but if I had been Mark, I would have returned it to the graders with the notation that they forgot to include "RB" (German roach) or "BN" (Palmetto bug).

Chris

 

What did they charge you for this ?????

And did they give you any reason why they did nothing to the coin ????

 

Thats a good one Chris,, It must have given him a good laugh to find a slabed roach. I wonder if he had kept it....I would imagine that if he ever listed his slabed roach on ebay he would make him self a small fortune.

what would have been even funnier if the roach was'nt found because he was distracted for a moment and it was sent to someone.

 

Knowing how honest and dedicated Mark is, it was probably destroyed. I doubt that NGC would like to have something like that floating around in the marketplace. PCGS would have a field day over it.

Chris

 

What perks do you get from NGC if you are an ANA member?

 

This explains it all.

http://www.ngccoin.com/MemberPortal/Login.aspx

 

Off the top of my head ,,,You get to send in coins to have graded with out having to join NGC or the Collectors Society of NGC

 

I'm very sure that Mark wouldn't let it leave the building,,,And not just for the reason that PCGS would have had a field day with that.

 

Thanks for the links guys.

 

The guys at PCGS have their fun as well. Back in the days when the SS Central America coins were first coming out they had a reception and as part of the table favors they have gold foil covered chocolate double eagles. Well the boys back in the slabbing dept slabbed one of them with an SS Central America label.

 

A couple of years ago I was in Mexico and bought a few coins from a relative. They were 4 silver coins from 1943 to 1968 so nothing too old but I liked the designs and did not pay too much for them. Unfortunately the coins were not stored well and had a good amount of dirt on them. I held onto them until I went to my local coin show where NCS/NGC were accepting submissions. I submitted the coins for conservation and grading.

When I got them back I was amazed and what a good job they did. If I hadn't seen the coins in their pre-submission state I would not have guessed that dirt had been on the coins before. The cost was not inexpensive so it's not something I would use all the time but I hated to see the coins I bought in that condition so I decided to try it and I'm happy I did.