A few months ago I almost made a mistake and bought what I thought was a 1888 S Morgan for a really decent price in MS62. I really didn't scrutinize the reverse too much because it was in a NGC holder and was in a hurry to buy it before someone else snagged it. After buying it but before it was shipped, I noticed there was no mint mark. I immediately contacted the seller and pointed out the error to him. He was apologetic and refunded me, he even called me to apologize. He was hopping mad at his LCS for not pointing out the mislabel and was going back to get his money back. Does NGC stand behind their work in these problems and offer to buy the coin and slab back?
The TPG do not compensate for obvious mistakes on their inserts. Wrong dates/mints is obvious. They frequently won't compensate for less obvious mistakes like wrong varieties.
If it had the wrong mint mark, it would almost certainly be considered a mechanical error and there would be no compensation from NGC. However, to make sure, did it actually say 1888 S or did it look like the example below (first photo)? For a long time NGC had "S$1" to designate something as a "Silver Dollar" ...this is not a reference to a mintmark. I have seen some confusion over this and it appears with the newest holders, NGC has removed the "S" (see second photo). (note: both photos are from random listings I found on eBay-not mine).
They will just replace the label at no charge to you but you’ll spend more money on shipping snd insurance.
That seems like a good guess. I've seen these posted as a "slab error" before. 1880 for example has S$1, T$1 and G$1. It made sense to code their denomination like that but not so much on the slab - pretty easy to tell gold from silver, or a trade dollar from a Morgan.
Oddly enough, the top photo is the EXACT date (and no mint mark) in the same grade and same NGC labeled holder! I wonder if it's the same one I cancelled the order on? The seller also listed S in the Title, but eBay doesn't verify mint marks for accuracy. I see wrong listings frequently.
So it was the S$1 thing. I guess it fooled all three of you. No, ebay doesn't verify mint marks. Heck, they don't even remove replica coins when it says replica right in the listing.
They don't even reject counterfeit coins, when they obviously are. They usually have the same amount of supposed wear (F-EF). a "sold from China" label, and a note like "33 sold, only 5 remain", with a single photo. That in itself is both infuriating and frightening.
I hate buying coins where it's a bulk listing, where I can't see the specific coin I'm buying. (Will make an exception if it's a new coin in government packaging where there's not likely much variation from one to the next. Same with banknotes in UNC condition; I don't really care what specific serial number it has.) I'm not going to say every coin sold from someone in China is fake, but... I will say you should put extra scrutiny on such, especially if it's an especially valuable coin. US Trade dollars are faked so often I won't ever buy them uncertified, and I don't even like slabbed coins for the most part. (I care more about the TPG authenticating it as genuine more than their opinion on the grade, in this case.)
