This article at NGC's site involves an 1870-CC $10 piece that had previously been certified by NGC as an XF-40 "holed". An expert filled the hole, etc., and then re-submitted it to NGC. They state the following: There are a number of ways that people alter a coin to either “improve” its appearance or fool a collector. These practices, such as whizzing or tooling, can be difficult to detect, even to a trained eye. Not long ago NGC received one extremely deceptive coin: a holed and expertly plugged 1870-CC half eagle. This coin was particularly interesting because we were able to determine that the holed coin, graded XF Details by NGC, was sold at auction in September 2010. After it was sold, someone carefully plugged the hole and re-engraved the missing details. This person, who likely refers to himself as a “coin restorer,” would likely argue that the appearance of the coin has been improved now that the hole is gone. Nonetheless, the originality of the coin has been compromised, and it has the potential to fool a collector into thinking that the coin is better and more valuable. 1870-CC Half Eagle http://www.ngccoin.com/news/viewarticle.aspx?IDArticle=2130&A-Case-Study-in-Deception It looks like they did not suspend the submitter's privaleges at this point.
Nor should they, unless it can be proven that the submitter was aware of the repair and was intentionally trying to deceive. Fewer than 100 1870-cc half eagles are known to exist. I would imagine that NGC paid particular close attention to that coin, and that discovering the holed coin had been sold at auction months earlier wasn't very difficult. Looks like a very good repair job. Interesting questions are, (1) did the repair job improve the coin's appearance? and (2) is this kind of expert repair bad for the hobby? Lance.
I'll ya what's good for the hobby, publishing that article is good for the hobby ! Why ? Because I'd say 999 out of a 1000 people could not recognize that the coin had been repaired. They need to know that there are coins like this out there.
