Another perfect example of why you should not believe the attribution supplied by a TPG. I won this 1833 Capped Bust Half Dime from crummy photos that would not allow me to attribute the coin definitively so I relied on the TPG attribution of LM-3.2 to guide me. It wouldn't have mattered to me if the coin was actually any of the five LM-3 die remarriages since they are all R-2 and I didn't have any of them except the 3.4. Got the coin in hand and lo and behold it is not an LM-3.2 but an LM-9, also an R-2 coin and one I already had in MS-63. So, a bad TPG attribution and crummy auction photos.
Wow, that is surprising. Is there any guarantee that allows the coin to be sent in for the correct attribution free of charge?
I don't know. I suppose if I had been the original submitter and they'd erred, they would fix it for "free" although I suspect I'd have to pay shipping & insurance so so such for "free". Since I'm not the original submitter and know nothing about the details of doing business with the TPGs maybe somebody that actually knows something about it could answer. As the saying goes: "I know nothing and I can prove it." As it is, the coin will just sit in my collection with a mis-attribution and a sticky that says what it really is.
From what I understand, PCGS will not cover the mis-attribution. An original submitter might be able to get it fixed for free and even you might be able to if PCGS feels generous enough to offer. Sometimes they will even pay for the shipping. The risk to asking them to fix it, is that they will tell you to send it in on your own dime and if you don't agree, they will deactivate the cert number. _____ Here is a portion from the link from the PCGS website: "Premium Values for unattributed varieties. PCGS does guarantee the attribution of coins listed as a particular variety on the PCGS holder insert. However, if PCGS has not attributed a particular variety and the coin in question is overgraded or non-authentic, PCGS only guarantees the value of the coin as described on the PCGS holder insert. For example, if you bought an 1921 Morgan dollar that happened to be a rare VAM variety, but the PCGS holder insert did not state the VAM variety and just said “1921 $1”, the PCGS Guarantee would only cover the value of an 1921 Morgan dollar, not the value of the rare VAM variety." https://www.pcgs.com/guarantee
It’s been my experience that NGC is more accurate with its variety attributions than PCGS. Many years ago I spotted one where PCGS had misattributed coin for its Red Book variety which made a huge difference in the value. Blowing something like that is really bad.
I've heard so many stories about mis-attributed coins that I absolutely never trust them. I always verify for myself. Sometimes, with unusual countries, they completely whiff the denomination as well! I've had Moroccan coins labelled with denominations that hadn't been used for a hundred years!
The variety is listed on the holder, and this says that PCGS DOES guarantee the attribution. I think this should be covered - and my personal expectation of PCGS would be that they they make me 100% whole, by correcting the attribution or refunding the cost entirely. I think they also would want to take a misattributed coin off the market, as it casts shade on them. I would call PCGS customer service, tell them the situation and that you wanted a full reimbursement for the cost of the coin, which you cannot use (and the resale of which would be complicated by the fact that your own integrity, @Publius2, would probably not allow you to just pass it off as a 3.2 again). PCGS should send you a shipping label to use free of charge, and upon their own inspection and agreement, should reimburses you for the entire cost - assuming of course you can show a receipt and it's a reasonable cost. I haven't ever asked PCGS to give me a full reimbursement - but I've shipped several Mechanical Errors back to them for correction. If you go that route, they should correct the label and send the coin back to you with LM-9 on it. (They might be generous and put it in a Gold Shield slab with a nice TrueView). I have had a full reimbursement from another grading company for a coin that had some damage that I'd managed to overlook (rookie error). That was a good experience considering I didn't catch the error until long after I had stashed that coin away in my SD Box. PS. I've been keeping a list of PCGS misattributions for just over a year of capped bust half dimes only (since my main focus is the registry). I've got seven of them listed. So it's uncommon - but happens frequently enough to follow your advice not to believe the label!
It really depends on the situation. Sometimes they are generous and other times they are hard to deal with. I've read about all kinds of situations on the forums over the years.
It can definitely hurt to talk to them. There have been cases where they give you an ultimatum-take their offer (which isn't necessarily favorable) or they will void the cert number (meaning when someone looks up the coin, the page says that cert number does not exist). I've seen that happen too.
You can but usually they won't give you an exact answer until they see the full slab. Another issue is that their wait times for talking on the phone are fairly long. Basically it comes down to how much one values their time and how much of a difference in value there is between having the slab be correct or not. If we are talking a significant price difference, then of course it is best to explore all options. If we are talking a fairly small amount, I would just leave it as-is (you can always add a sticker on the slab with the correct attribution).
Yeah, that makes sense. I would say it is disappointing, even though it's not even my coin, to see that someone paid extra money for the attribution process only for it to be completely incorrect. But if it doesn't bother you then that's great. Are you referring to the 1972 DDO that circulated here a while ago? That was pretty bad....
While they won't guarantee the attribution (meaning you won't be reimbursed for a difference in value caused by a mis-attribution) they will re-holder the coin with the correct attribution for free because they don't want the mis-attribution out there tarnishing their image.
