What coins were they? I would recommend to crack them out and try again with NGC, maybe you may get better luck if they are not too bad, any photo??
Photos soon. They were all Secure. The scratch I get. The cleaned... meh. The questionable color? Not thrilled. Star coins at NGC = Questionable color at PCGS.
I have had quite a few results like this from PCGS. Mostly because I think they throw around the "cleaned" designation whenever a coin looks "too good to be true." I have an UNC Bust Half, probably an MS64, that has come back cleaned twice. It is toned nicely and doesn't have a hairline to speak of. It is probably a stressful job though, to have your job and reputation on the line with every single coin that you grade. There's probably a good bit of paranoia, thinking that people are trying to slip altered coins by you every single day.
My experience is that PCGS is actually much more lenient on toning than NGC. So I don't agree with the statement you made in which I "bolded".
@jester3681 , so do you have pictures of the 5 coins that PCGS decided were cleaned? I think it's very hard sometimes to see these lines and I'd like to use your photos for education purposes, if possible. Sorry to hear about your results. I've had a couple come back cleaned myself and it's always a let down.
Absolutely! As soon as I get the pics from PCGS, I'll post them. I can also link you to the high resolution pics.
I've seen them pass pure crap many times when they detail stuff for no reason. Is how they ensure future submissions. I've been all over the map with both. As bad as 3/10 passed and as good as 8for 8
If you can, I'd rather see them posted in the thread, but if providing the link is the only possibility, than that would do.
Very sorry for those results but if I may, w/o seeming critical, that many coins getting by your own radar might suggest you need to take a closer look next time under better magnification before you submit the next lot or even any of these. It would be a shame to crack them out and just resubmit only to have it happen again at a diff. TPG. It can be quite expensive to keep doing this without being more critical of your coins. And please, I am not trying to insult you.
I agree with tommyc03. We the collector have a habit of thinking more highly of our treasures (not enough objectivity) while a third party has no agenda nor axe to grind. I went through about 200 of my already graded coins last week and re-graded them. Results were surprising: 80% graded same; other 20% down a grade. Some of the 20% were graded AU to AU+ which I regraded XF. I did actually upgrade one but I may check myself again. It is difficult but one has to remove any attachment to the coin and then one can be truly objective. Just my opinion but it's working for me. Please don't ask me about my paper money regrading.
You know I see a lot of people who switch/crossover a coin from 1 TPG to another and even will resubmit the same coin to the same TPG several times until they get an answer (grade) their happy with. Doesn't that screw up the numbers on the slabs as well as the TPGs' database when they issue a number only to have the coin taken out?
Ok: here are the coins that came back details: Scratch: I get it, this one just plain slipped past me. I had this coin in hand for maybe a day before it got sent in, and I just simply didn't look at it closely. Cleaned: The Quinlan piece I can see, I suppose. I'm not terribly concerned, this is an R-8 coin, so I just wanted its authenticity. The other two... I don't see it. I won't take offense to some enlightenment. Questionable Color: I guess on this one, if I had to step back and be picky, the obverse and reverse are not toned in a matched way. The "questionable color" designation always kind of irks me. This one has a sister in another batch that is more evenly toned. Hopefully she comes back as a clean grade.