Professional Coin Restoration?

I saw before and after photos of a PCGS ‘conserved’ coin that did not turn out well (local coin shop submission). The coin was sent off to PCGS to be conserved and re-slabbed. Water had gotten into the slab, and left an area of pale grey staining on a small portion of the coin. When the coin came back, it looked as though the area in question had been scrubbed with steel wool. Terrible hairlines... The hairlines were not there in the before photos, this was done during the conservation process. The coin also received a regular grade, not a details grade after the conservation. This was a very high value coin, so very unfortunate
From other examples I have seen the coins sent for conservation come out looking much better, so don’t know what happened in this case. It seemed as though a new person was given the conservation task... after the above detailed experience, the LCS stated they would not be using PCGS for any future coins requiring conservation.

 

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I think it's possible the hairlines were created by cleaning the coin though perhaps not very likely. Coins get dropped on the floor in the grading room occasionally too, though again not very often. Kind of need to see the coin to have any meaningful discussion about it. Wish there were pics to go with the post. If the before and after pics reveal a coin that only has hairlines where the coin had previously been stained, then yeah, seems to me it's a reasonable conclusion to say "the cleaners" put them there. UNLESS, the stain was artificial toning to begin with, used to conceal hairlines, then it somehow got slabbed that way by PCGS without the alteration being detected, with hairlines only revealed after conservation. Seems kind of far fetched scenario for that to have happened but in the coin business anything is possible.

 

The area in question was a small section that ran in a straight line across, and just above the date line (of course on both obverse and reverse, as it was a water line stain~ and this was due to the coin having been stored in a box with other PCGS slabbed coins that had the misfortune of going through a flood). The original PCGS grade for the coin was a straight grade, and if recall correctly, EF-45. But when the coin came back after conservation, in the new holder, it still had the straight grade, and the ONLY area with the severe hairlines was the area that had had the slight water staining. Many experienced people looked at the before and after pictures, and all came to the conclusion that these hairlines were not there in the before pic. (Also, we were viewing the pics on a high resolution, jumbo monitor- so we were looking at excellent images). I will try getting in touch with the person that had the pics, to see if he still has them, and if so, would not mind sharing them here.

 

That would be great.

 

I haven't had any complaints with NCS. Below is some before and after pictures of a piece I had conserved about a year ago. The color did not change like the photo's may show but the surface buildup was removed and it ended up with a straight grade.

Before




After:

 

If you're happy with it, that's all that really matters. I would have hoped just the deposits on the shoulder would have been removed without any trace of alteration to the remainder of the medal. That's probably being delusional to think that might have been possible.

 

I think the conservation ruined the rev. Overall I think the piece looked better before.

 

Not ruined, but I do agree it looked better with the original patina intact, both sides. I had a 1797 Two Pence that NCS removed spots from and it didn't lighten the overall appearance of the coin. They then put it in an AU58 holder if memory serves me, and I made a small fortune reselling it (had 75 in it plus conservation and grading, got 500 for it on eBay). This was a long time ago though, I doubt they have to same people doing the work now days.