Has anyone used a conservation service besides NCS?

I understand that the four major grading services offer coin conservation. NCS is the oldest and I can find/read plenty about that company including advertisements.

Has anyone had a coin conserved by the others? What was the coin and were you satisfied with the result?

EDIT: How would you feel if one of the services touched/conserved your coin without asking your permission?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I'm pretty sure ANACS "conserved" one Peace dollar I sent in, right about the time they started their conservation service, but they didn't say anything to me about it. I remembered the coin being a good bid darker and grimy-looking, but I hadn't attempted any conservation on it myself, and I didn't have good "before" pictures.

So, I think they did something, with good results, but I have no evidence.

 

Not me.

N/A

Without asking, I would be furious.

 

Same as above. You might add : How many times did you do conservation on a coin and it passed PCGS or NGC with no remarks.

 

I used ANACS one a large group of cents when they had a special and checked the box for conservation. They said they did one , but I couldn't tell which one.

 

I'll let you know when I get them back. I have a couple at PCGS right now. One has a whitish looking bit of stuff on it and the other has a tiny bit of PVC.

One I knew when I bought it. For the other the PVC was very tiny and I didn't see it until I looked at it on my laptop with my camera. I went back and saw both coins showed the problems on the TrueViews (had to zoom in on the PVC one) so I'm HOPING these are covered by their guarantee.

I'm also hoping they explicitly follow the verbiage of their policy where they state they only remove the crud and leave the overall look and toning alone. One would become a soulless blast white gem and the other a dipped looking soulless XF.

I've got the true views, the seller pictures and my before shots...and am just waiting in the afters.

As for if something was conserved without permission...I'd be pretty upset. NGC called me once to ask if they could 'fix' one for me. It was straight grading as a 65, so no issues, just a bit tarnished I suppose. That coin is a dime a dozen in blas twhite 65, 66 and even 67s. Last thing I wanted was another little widget. I was happy how they handled it...the coin is popular without toning so the call was nice, but they definitely would have had me livid if they had dipped it without telling me.

I'll post a photo of it when I'm not stuck on my tablet.

 

I have used PCGS on two or three coins. One had haze, one bad carbon spots.

The haze coin came out great and later upgraded. The spot coin has a little residual spotting but it is much, much less than before.

I was very happy with the work. It does take a long time however so just be prepared to be patient.

 

I used PCGS restoration twice, and I never will again. I was told David Hall personally saw to each restoration.

Example 1:
The first time it worked wonders. I had a coin with brown gunk on both sides. It looked like it had been dipped in poop, but it was in a PCGS MS62 holder. It looked 1000 times better afterwards. Here she is... PCGS MS62, and yes, she's every bit this nice in hand:



Example 2:
The second time he over-dipped my coin by a mile. It had some natural tone on the obverse, but the reverse was speckled and a strange gray color, unlike a natural gray silver coin. But when Mr. Hall was finished, it looked like he forgot about it and let it soak in EZ-Est for a couple days. It was flat, whitish, and lifeless. Almost zero remaining luster. It was improperly cleaned. Here is the coin... PCGS AU55. Keep in mind, this TrueView makes it look much better than the lifeless piece of garbage it was/is.


What I learned:
NEVER let them dip a circulated coin. Personally, I can lightly do it with vastly better results using dip that has been diluted, that works slowly, and that I can halt the effects of, almost immediately.

 

If I so think a coin needs preservation ---- I do it myself!!! I used to use NCS but then learned to do self preservation as the costs usually buries the value. It is so simple to do your own preservation to remove easy contaminant particles. Now if the coin was really coated with something harsh, that would really depend on rarity and then I would leave it to the better experts. Mint package must and old album coins I do myself.
Rick

 

I sent 10 coins to PCGS restoration. It was a mix of small cents, two cents, and a Morgan. Some holdered and some raw, with artificial and natural discoloration or residue.

Two were restored and graded 1 higher than submitted.

• Most of a fingerprint was removed from a Lincoln Cent
• Some of the PVC haze was removed from a Morgan

8 copper coins were not restored. PCGS would not tell me why. It took them a month of "processing" my submission to return the unrestored coins with "No" written on my submission stickers.

 

Happened to mine. I wasn't made though. Wish they would have done the entire coin.

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ngc-removed-gunk-from-coin.262408/

 

Without permission would be very angry. I need to agree with what they think needs work before I would allow anything to be done

Generally means they aren't confident it won't make it worse.

 

Am I too simplistic in my thinking?

Acetone/organic solvent is more like 'washing off' a coin. No metal changes, just taking off some kind of contaminant to stabilize the surfaces and reveal the natural coin.

'dipping' is a chemical process that removes/changes at the micro level.

Cleaning is 'a scrubbing' of some sort--a metal movement on the macro level to get rid of some gunk/toning and leaves the hairlines. Polishing is the most egregious example--might look good from a distance but up close is pretty awful and obvious.

Doctoring is actively changing a property of the coin (adding toning with chemicals/environment actively applied, or doing something to conceal a flaw such as putty/laser).

I forgot what the the real definition of whizzing is, but IIRC it is an extreme chemical stripping process.

To me 'conservation' is supposed to be a 'spa treatment' where the coin has a problem such as PVC/surface contamination of some sort and this is removed by someone who knows what they are doing. But, also, might involve some sort of minimal chemical processing which CAN do some slight alteration with the goal of maximizing what is already present.

Sort of like going to a spa vs. going to the plastic surgeon or the dermatology clinic. One is to enhance the reality, the other is to get a new reality.

I've sent in a few coins and medals to NGC--all because they had some kind of visible crud on them I wanted gone (not just PVC though that too, but some kind of cruddy looking stuff) because it was likely continuing to cause harm that would only get worse.

 

Take what GDJMSP, posted as gospel:

1. "The terms conserve or conservation are nothing but euphemisms for cleaning."

2. "Cleaning a coin IS NOT a bad thing."

Now, I'll add some thoughts about the processes you ask about.

Stork, posted: "Acetone/organic solvent is more like 'washing off' a coin. No metal changes, just taking off some kind of contaminant to stabilize the surfaces and reveal the natural coin. True. However, in many cases, a coin will "look" more attractive if it is not squeaky cleaned of the organic films on its surface.

"'dipping' is a chemical process that removes/changes at the micro level." True, dipping as we refer to it (acidic) removes surface oxidation.

"Cleaning is 'a scrubbing' of some sort" No, holding a coin under running water is cleaning. Dipping a coin is cleaning. As soon as any "scrubbing" (that leaves traces) is involved, you are improperly cleaning. "...a metal movement on the macro level to get rid of some gunk/toning and leaves the hairlines."

"Polishing is one of the most egregious example--might look good (to someone uninformed) from a distance but up close is pretty awful and obvious."

"Doctoring is actively changing a property of the coin (adding toning with chemicals/environment actively applied, or doing something to conceal a flaw such as putty/laser)." Close enough.

"I forgot what the real definition of whizzing is, but IIRC it is an extreme chemical stripping process." Actually in the late 1960's the ANA defined whizzing just as you have - a chemical process. Now we know that was nonsense. Whizzing is a mechanical alteration done to imitate mint luster. It is characterized by the movement of metal into raised ridges on the relief. If the ridges are absent, it is not whizzing but some degree of buffing.

"To me 'conservation' is supposed to be a 'spa treatment' where the coin has a problem such as PVC/surface contamination of some sort and this is removed by someone who knows what they are doing. But, also, might involve some sort of minimal chemical processing which CAN do some slight alteration with the goal of maximizing what is already present. Sort of like going to a spa vs. going to the plastic surgeon or the dermatology clinic. One is to enhance the reality, the other is to get a new reality." This is another pretty good statement; however, conservation (cleaning) may also involve some "plastic surgery! It helps if you didn't see the patient before or during the surgery - only after great results...LOL.

 

Close yea, though simply having a conducive environment shouldn't be doctoring. Burying something or a oven sure, but if you can just leave something laying around do we call mother nature a coin Dr?

 

It would depend on what they did to the coin. I would be good with an acetone bath with most coins. A dip would probably upset me a bit.
Many years ago, ANACS sent a coin back to me in a bag with a note. It said the coin had PVC on it but it could be removed and probably grade. I wish they would have just done it but understand why they didn't.

 

I honestly don't care about intent, that can't be known unless the coin has been under surveillance the entire time. The end product is all that should matter. If it happens without physically applying gunks or putty ect it is natural to me. If you can leave something somewhere and do nothing else and it happens that is natural.