I had a mint state early $10 gold coin once that, when submitted to NGC for grading, was body-bagged as "bent". I don't know if any others here have had this happen to them. The dealer who did the submission for me said that he could sandwich it between a couple pieces of plexiglass, put it in a vice, and get the bend out, but he would charge $100 for this service, and would not guarantee anything. Has anyone had success getting bends out of such coins? Thanks.
I don't think bent coins can be saved/conserved without signs of it being done. I have a 1831 Lg. Cent that was cleaned, bent, and "damaged". Probably one of my favorite coins though because of all the problems
Once bent, the coin will never be the same. You can say them same for holed coins that are later filled. I have an 1849-O Large 'O' dime that is bent. While it's not in the best of shape (VG on obverse, AG on Reverse) the bend gives it character.
In the case of the gold coin it had been in a PCGS MS61 holder. NGC would not grade. We sent it back to PCGS which probably considered the bend to be natural or acceptable.
It was over 10 years ago when they did not do details grading. I sold it through Teletrade: http://www.teletrade.com/coins/lot.asp?auction=1250&lot=1960 That was a high end coin, why we tried it at NGC, a shot 62. Now it would be worth over $30K!
With US coins bent is bent, there is no fixing it. Even if you flatten it back out, the signs that it was bent are always going to be there. With older coins, coins that were minted before the US existed, and especially with hammered coins (anything minted before 1643 and a few after) "bent" is another story altogether. In many cases what they call wavy planchets were commonplace. So "bent" coins are perfectly acceptable. I have seen hammered coins that were wadded up, almost as if you took a piece of paper and wadded it up into a ball. And that coin was straightened back out flat, sent to a TPG, and graded.
The dealer who wanted to charge me $100 to straighten the coin out in hopes that NGC would grade it MS62 apparently thought that by sandwiching it with plexiglas (to minimize external damage) and then putting it in a vice, believed he could do it without damaging the coin; gold is soft and maleable, but the grading services are notoriously analytical when it comes to any coin issues. I also had cracked a couple of early Bust $5 pieces that NGC would not grade due to "issues"; PCGS was happy to put them in no details holders.
Another thought when you get a bad or "details" grade on a coin; you become demoralized and are eager to have the problem rectified quickly or sell the coin without losing much money.
Yeah, but when metal is bent it stretches at the bend. And when you flatten it back out, you make new stretch marks. And there is nothing you can do to make those stretch marks go away.
As has already been said, once the coin is bent there is nothing that can be done for it. However, PCGS will slab them as damaged and I believe they are now giving a details grade (previously, they would slab them as "genuine"). I have a bent $1 gold piece that is slabbed in this manner.
