Over the years I've had 20-30 coins bag from PCGS due to QC. I resubmitted 80% of those to PCGS again and all straight graded. The grading process is the opinion of the graders who are working at the time. There are several groups of graders and their work schedule is rotated.
mrjason71, posted: "I guess that's moot because how could you prove it? You can't prove it! That's why it's questionable." and..."it's damn near impossible for a laymen to recognize authentic color." No, it is not moot, and in most cases YOU CAN PROVE IT. It is more of a legal thing. And...NO, anyone with a good eye, an interest to learn who studies enough coins can get to be as good as the next expert. Problem is, TPGS guys see more coins in a week than the average colloctor will see in a year or two. Additionally, they get OTJ training. It's like going to a grading seminar for color and toning.
Not quite like that, but if you sent in a submission that had 3 or 4 other questionable color coins with it the good one is going to be under a lot of suspicion and if there's any doubt it'll get hit too.
I know how frustrating it can be, but with experience you can differentiate. There will still be those rare cases where experts disagree, but the vast majority of problem coins, including questionable color, are pretty straightforward calls once you know what you are looking for. Now, you are correct that this business practice plays into the TPGs hands, as do many others. I would encourage you to continue learning and if you like raw coins, like I do, find areas of the hobby where collecting raw is de rigueur. With areas of numismatics where TPGs have taken over, like Lincolns, it really does become a red flag if a valuable coin is not graded; whereas in areas like Early American copper, colonials, or ancients it would not be a concern.
I don't care if I send in 10,000 AT'd coins in a batch, they need to find the one good one in there, don't they? Or what good is it? You can prove it's AT? Then why is it questionable? Should just say AT. By legal you mean like to cover there butt?
This is what I mean by swinging both ways. If you have 3 or 4 real solid ones and the last one just looks "different", it'll get the jaundiced eye.
Oh my. What a world THAT would be! I know it sounds like a trite expression and a pain in the butt, but there REALLY is no substitute for having looked at thousands and thousands of coins. And I mean in the flesh, not pictures online.
@mrjason71 You have posted some very fine and valuable coins. If you don't feel comfortable buying raw coins on your own, get a good dealer to help you or BEST OF ALL, buy coins already slabbed. No disrespect but your question has been asked and answered by many knowledgeable folks here. I'm not going to continue playing yes, but... I have nephews around for the holidays that do that. BTW, your question has livened up the forum.
This also lends itself to the notion that nothing is provable...that it's all opinion...Man I don't want to know what that feels like--to send my babies in and have them in that questionable color slab. And what mixed feelings one must have upon receiving straight grading the second time: happy it's straight graded but there must be a feeling of being scammed. I've read this a number of times: Just keep submitting til coin gets the right grader...Amazing such huge value is placed on a system such as this. I know I know: It's better than nothing...
I once made the mistake of sending two "San Diego" commem halves in the same submission to NGC. One was rewarded by the internal comparison and got a higher than dreamt of grade. The other one got hammered. I sent it back in and it scored two points higher the second time, about what I originally expected.
For the most part, yes. Here's the thing, and it's already been touched on in this thread. There are methods by which a coin can be artificially toned and absolutely nobody can tell that it has been artificially toned because it looks exactly like natural toning. And it looks like natural toning because it was toned in the same way that natural occurs. And, there are examples where coins have 100% natural toning, but because it is unusual in one way or another, or resembles other examples of known artificial toning, that the TPGs declare it to be artificial toning and refuse to give the coin a clean grade. And, there are examples where the TPG looks at a coin and they are just not sure one way or the other if the toning is artificial or natural. And when see a coin like that will always err on the side of caution. Now all of that said, there are also examples that are easily identified as artificial toning by experienced eyes. But these are typically "bad jobs" done the person who AT'd the coin. Toning jobs done by people who don't know what they are doing in other words. So, you take all of that and put it together, and what you have are so many different variables that all you can do is to say that the toning is questionable. Or to out it another way it's the TPG saying - we don't know for an absolute fact that this toning is artificial, but we think it might be. So all we can do is say it's questionable. In the end, you are correct, it is always an opinion because there is no way to definitely prove it.
It's not that simple, it just goes back to what I was saying initially. Everyone has different tastes and standards when it comes to toning. A lot of people get very few surprises with their toning grades but but even they will have their disagreements. The TPGs have people trying to slip toners by them all the time and they don't know the history of a coin so they generally will error on the side of caution. It's a different animal than just grading and does get impacted by company policy as well. Unless they've changed NGC basically flat out refuses to straight grade modern toners as an example. I try and separate out gold now, either the gold or silver usually ends up below what I expected whenever I have mixed and matched.
So it's just a game. Fair enough. Learn to play it and take advantage of it. Sounds good. Im trying to really know what's going on before I jump in. I've looked at my share of coins and I was just really taken aback by the original one I posted. It really looks market acceptable to me. I tried to provide some examples of some similarly colored coins that straight graded. Maybe not the best examples from my 5 minute search. I feel if I look long enough I can find one that looks just like that one that gets straight graded. Is that original coin I posted just questionable? Period. Always? Or does it get straight graded on resubmission? That's where I'm lost. It can't be both. It either never gets through or it gets through sometimes and if it gets through sometimes I'd argue its market acceptable.
The answer to that is maybe. Yes, it might. Actually it can be both. And in fact often is. Ya see this is what I was trying to explain above - there are always a wide range of variables. And it is those variables that determine the outcome. The coin you posted above for example. It is an unnatural color for those coins. This leads me to believe that coin was dipped, but dipped improperly for copper, and that is what produced that unnatural color and resulted in the questionable color designation. But here's the thing, if you were to crack it out and send that coin back in, to the same company, there is a possibility it could get a clean grade. That exact scenario has happened before - many times. And it may get a clean grade because different graders looked at it the 2nd time. Or, it might get a different grade the 2nd time because a enough time had passed in between the submissions for natural toning to occur and change the look of the coin. So that by the time the 2nd set of graders saw it, it looked perfectly natural. Or you could send it to a different TPG and they might just clean grade it - or not. Bottom line, it's always a crap shoot because there is no way to categorically prove anything. All they can do is guess.