Im not sure if this coin is worth it but thought about sending it in just to see what the service is like. Has anyone had a positive experience with it? I have only seen one thread about it and it seemed to have a negative sentiment to it can't really remember. Anyway, is this worth a try or a total waste of money?
Just curious, do they "conserve" the coin and then reholder it for one fee, or do you pay for conservation, and then have an optional grading / holder fee?
If they are anything like NGC, there is a separate conservation fee and then yes, there is a separate resubmission fee. It can get pricy so make sure the coin is worth it. It has been my personal experience that the coin most always goes up a grade with conservation if not more. Many of my coins have jumped up 2 to 3 grades higher after conservation. But remember....not all conservation work is the same. Some things are harder to "clean" than others.
Well, what's your goal here? Is this something you're planning to keep, but you think the coin is ugly and you want it to look better? If that's the case, it may be worth the price to you. I'd say it's likely though, that you could just sell this one and buy a different one in the same grade that looks better and end up spending less money. Or, are you looking to sell and think the coin will be more marketable if it's more attractive? In that case you can simply figure out if the cost of the services adds up to more, or less, than the potential increase in market value of the coin (if any at all). If it's just going to be cleaner, and put back into a slab at the same grade, I can't imagine the value being a whole lot more.
I definitely think this coin could use a restoration / conservation. Sometimes, they come back worse, and sometimes better. I don't see ANY downside in trying with this coin, its just too darn fugly as-is.
I'm not positive yet. Right now it fills my 1894 o hole in my registry set. My current goal is to complete the set before making any real improvements to the set. I am mainly curious about what they can do to this coin. I'm gonna call tm and find out what deal with the fee is. Thanks guys
That coin in that grade is worth from $150-$180 for a decent looking example. The cost to have PCGS work on it is $25, whether they work on it or reject it - not all coins are accepted as candidates for their conservation service. That fee also covers the coin being graded after work is completed. There are no additional charges for grading. But there are charges for shipping and insurance. So for $30-$35 you can have it done. Of course there is no guarantee that after they dip your coin that it will still be a gradeable coin. Meaning once the dipping/conservation is done problems may be revealed and the coin would have to go in Genuine slab. And if it did that could drop the value by as much as 50% based on actual realized prices. So those are your choices. Well, there's 1 more. Sell the coin as is, and buy another just like it that you actually like, that doesn't need any work done on it. Money out of pocket to do that, probably about the same amount you'd have to pay PCGS. But without any risk of course. Doesn't seem like much of a choice to me
I guess I just want to see what it would look like wo that big black finger print. I"ll keep ya"ll posted.
I don't think the coin is going to look great after conservation. It looks like an eBay quality coin to me - flip it, even if you must take a loss and buy something you like better. If you want to keep the coin for some sentimental reason and want to conserve it, my advice is to crack it yourself, do the conservation, and put it away in an album. I can't guarantee that the coin will look better, and frankly I think dipped circulated coins are hideous and can't rule out that it will look worse, but here goes (and I think a conservation service, if they decided to work on the piece, would try this): 1. Try to bathe the coin in acetone. If that is organic debris rather than a stain or toning, then it could be removed safely with no real risk of damage to the coin. 2. Dip the coin lightly using a commercial dip, and drop it in for a short time. I recommend using 2 seconds. Any longer, and you risk damage to the coin. If it is a stain, you might still be out of luck.
I don't know that I'd say that. I think it's more that they are trying to compete with NGC/NCS who has offered the same service for a long time. To get their own piece of the pie in other words. One way or another they have to do something to boost income and every little bit helps.
Actually they also charge you a guarantee premium fee whether it upgrades or not. It's automatically charged once the coin goes through grading.
Well yesterday when I looked it up here - http://www.pcgs.com/restoration/ - I read this - All coins restored through the PCGS Restoration service will be graded by PCGS. Once graded by PCGS they will be covered by the PCGS guarantee of authenticity and grade. - and I thought the re-grading was part of the restoration service. But I read it a bit more carefully today after reading your post. What I missed yesterday was this - Restored coins will automatically be graded by PCGS and will be charged the appropriate grading fee associated with the service level for that coin. So yes, there is more than the $25 minimum fee I mentioned if you have PCGS work on a coin for you. But I have no idea what you are talking about when you say a - "guarantee premium fee".
You haven't heard? That's PCGS's cute policy where if you submit a coin, in a PCGS holder for reconsideration or if you attempt to cross over a coin, they will charge you an additional 1% fee of the coin's fair market value. This fair market value is the greater of your declared value or the PCGS Price Guide Value (which it interestingly ignores when making payouts under its guarantee). So, if the coin was in a PCGS holder at AU50 and it gets bumped up to an AU53, then this is certainly a possibility. I can find nothing online exempting these coins from that fee - if someone can, please post it.
No, I hadn't heard about that one yet. That said it only applies in certain cases - * Guarantee Premium (1% of PCGS Price Guide value or declared value). Applies to Rarities, Crossovers and Reconsiderations. That is found here - http://www.pcgs.com/servicesandfees/ So apparently coins that undergo the Restoration process, are not charged this additional guarantee premium fee.
I agree with you that the 1% premium shouldn't apply, but it also states that they are on the hook if it downgrades (I saw this just now). See http://www.pcgs.com/restoration/. So isn't it a reconsideration of sorts? I am not claiming to have the answer. I hope someone who has had an upgrade will chime in.
