Re submit in 20 yrs for a 67. Or better yet, a 90 because they will have changed the scale to 1-100 and made it not correlate at all with the current 1-70. Who will stop them? Not me, I don't have the money to.
Don't count on ever switching to a 100 scale. To much value would be lost and to many people would walk away.
You may be right. Some number cruncher has likely found what you said to be true, or maybe the number cruncher told them to wait, and the perfect time to pull the old switcheroo is not quite here yet....
Their decline in their market grading standards just tells us what they think their sucker market will fall for, now, in their plastic, that's all.
Maybe not completely. 65+ and 66 are close and in some cases, depending on eye appeal, the coin has a shot at the higher grade. I prefer to think that the club members cannot grade. Either that or they are stuck in the past and uninformed. Grading is a personal thing. Whatever a person's grade opinion is (as long as it's not wacky) is just fine. It is their standard. I know because I find myself stuck in the past. My personal grades are often far off from the TPGS grades of today. However, through study, practice, seminars, etc. I am able to cover the grade of an ICG, NGC, NCS, PCGS, or ANACS slab (in hand) and guess the grade on the label correctly so often it scares me. IMO, the ideal to strive for is to have your own standards but know the commercial standards too so you don't loose money either buying or selling.
Absolutely NOT. There is nothing in the slab room (I've had a tour of a few of them) that would leave those marks. Dropping the coin would not do it either (At least one slab room had carpet and protected [wrapped] table legs). I've been told that the workers value their jobs and if ANY damage is done to a coin (even a light scrape from the mat on the insert table) they show the coin to the supervisor. A note is made and if the damage is thought to be hardly noticeable the coin is returned to see if it is caught by the owner. If not... If the owner complains, the grading service has a record of the damage and it is "made right." I have heard of cases where there has been disagreement between the two parties. I have also been told that coins with noticeable damage have been photographed in their original packaging and the owner notified. There are also stories of submitters trying to dupe the TPGS about things like scratches. Often the "age" of a scratch can be proven to be old and not caused by the TPGS. Are we having fun yet... Bottom line, the OP's coin is gouged and over graded. Due to the appearance of the marks, I'm 100% positive that it did not happen at the mint or the TPGS. I cannot say how it happened; however, try this little test to see how hard it is to produce those marks. Take a brand new SE and throw it at the wall across the room...you will be shocked to find that in many cases, the coin will look exactly the same - undamaged! We've done it in a seminar. EDIT I just looked at the OP again. IMO, the coin was hit by the edge of another coin, note the spacing...we are looking at edge reeding scrapes. Ta, ta...thank you very much.
It can't be a "scratch", as it's reported that PCGS stated in the PCI trial that scratches are unacceptable for a grade, effectively increasing the damages awarded. I've numerous graded coins with scratches. many are from PCGS, and some with believed more honest grading, have a grade and a notation stating "scratched" I believe it's the "do as I say, not as I do" concept. JMHO