Exxxxxxxactly. I sent a gem coin with tons of luster...and got back a coin with a growing big green spot on it. LCS at the time speculated a grader might have sneezed on it or something. Went from a coin I was planning to permanently keep to just another item in the next auction. Not a good day.
Ouch. That sucks so bad. Really crappy that they didn't even seem to care. Reason number 1,000,000,000,000 that I don't mess with TPGs. Sorry for your loss.
@stldanceartist, it appears that someone's spittle landed on the obverse below his hair. Doesn't look like it was on the coin when you sent it in. Steve
Thank you - good news is that there are plenty of coins out there, and only so many hours in the day to pay attention to them. I'd mostly forgotten about it until this thread haha... ...and I'm in the midst of filling out a submission form for some really nice world coins, and having second thoughts. (Mostly I'm just thinking some of them aren't worth sending in because they stand a decent chance of a Details grade...but then again, I see the difference a slab makes in sale prices for toned coins (EDIT: And low-mintage Chinese Silver Proofs) I figure it might still be worth the effort.)
Here's my 50 million mark piece, gilded bronze, 32 g. I note numista lists two variants: broad rim and narrow rim. I guess mine is broad rim since that's the commoner variety. Anybody have a narrow rim for comparison?
Dad had several of those when I was growing up. Usually red. But one was white. Same region of origin as the coins, obviously.