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Message:: [QUOTE="Boss, post: 498843, member: 15110"]To all my fans and supporters:hug:! Just got off the phone with Craig at NCS. Wrote two long emails with before/after photos. What a total disappointment. I explained that I manage quite a few people myself in my job, and if I had a dissappointed customer as I am, I would do whatever it takes to make it right. I offered to trade coin back for fair market value ($300-400??) based on the hairlines. I explained that the mineral oil on my coins that were sent in could have been easily removed with a 30 second dip in acetone or isopropyl alcohol with no impact to the coin. He explained that any residue on the coin would  be removed with their propriety chemicals. Anyone with experience (NCS certainly are the experts right?) would know that these spots could not be removed except by mechanical methods. I sent these coins in about 4 months ago and believe it or not, I have learned a lot since then. I now look at this coin and know with certainty that such spots could never be removed. His response was that he could not do anything for me and he had a budget to be concerned about as well. I should state he will refund the conservation fees and that was much appreciated. I was more frustrated about failure to admit a mistake in judegment, which never happened. I told him that I don't know what his client base is but ( a lot of 20-100K coins verse lower end stuff like mine), but in my business I would never leave the conversation the way he was leaving it. I told him I will never send a coin to NCS (I won't buy damaged ones) and most peoples' response on this posts were not on the side of NCS. Very dissappointing response on his part:crying::crying::crying: As well I had asked if he would read this post and he said he wasn't going to, or that it wouldn' change anything. Doesn't that mean he wouldn't care what his customers thought or other potential customers?  In the current economic state of the world I would think happy customers are a vital part of cont'd success.Here's what I sent him: Dear Craig this is my follow-up. I have not heard from you and I am a little frustrated at this point. If you would read my posts on Coin Talk on 01/09 called "how to safely, natural tone a coin". The response by my fellow numismatists. I think I was very fair and pro NCS but I have two ruined coins that may take 10 years to retone and I could easily screw them up if I try to accelerate the toning. All the while I will not enjoy the coins (particularly the 14 D) and would loose at least $200 on this coin in my opinion and several hundred on the 1869. I will post your kind response on these coin forums, both Collectors Society and Coin Talk, but as of yet it hasn't been good press. Many posters faulted NCS (people with a lot more experience than myself). I take responsibility for cracking the coin out (the 14 D), but the issue at hand was that on my invoice I said quote "PLEASE LIGHTEN/REMOVE OBVERSE SPOTS. WAS IN NGC VF 35 SLAB AND WAS CRACKED OUT. MUST HAVE GRADE AT NGC. HIGH IMPORTANCE! On the 1869 it said " small obverse spot, top Left. NGC grade top priority! I had as well, called Danielle several times and explained all these coins had light mineral oil on (I suscribe to this as EAC collectors do). I told her in more than one conversation to let the evaluator know this and if it would preclude grading to simply remove with acetone or what benign product (distilled water) to remove. That is I didn't want my coins chemically conserved because they had mineral oil. I would like you to call me back any morning this week before 9 am my time. I really can't take this kind of call at anyother time. I am on PST so this would be 12 oclock your time which should give you plenty of time. If you could call back tommorrow that would be great as I called for you today and spoke with Danielle. > ---- deleted wrote: > > Dear Craig, > > Thanks for taking the time to take my call and consider my situation. Overall I felt NCS gave me excellent customer service. Danielle was very helpful as were Mike and Patrick re: various questions I had. The 1913 D Lincoln turned out much better than expected with a big finger print on the reverse removed which I posted on US Coin Forums. The 1923 and 1921 Lincons came out nice as welll, however the rust spot on the 1923 on Lincolns head was still there. > > I will proceed with my concerns over several coins that should not have been conserved (IMO) now that I have learned more since submitting them. I am certain the 1914 D would have graded as you can see it came from a NGC slab and I did nothing to the coin except apply mineral oil and dab dry with a microfiber cloth. Actually this was true of all of the coins which I stated to Danielle and told her if NCS felt this was a problem they could simply remove with acetone. There was no other surface residue on these coins as you could see from the photos except for the problems that I explained on the submission form. I knew these coins well prior to submission and have been very careful re: conservation/preservation of them. I keep all coins in airtites in less than 40% humidity in IS box's in a ziplock bag with rechargeable dessicants and all the air sucked out. > > My Time Warner Cable account only allows a limited amount of photos to be sent so I will have to send out of order and in multiple emails. The 1914 D was brown with no visible hairlines whatsoever. I mostly wanted it to grade as you can see on my invoice #5179063 I underlined "MUST HAVE IT GRADE". I have learned more since then and now know that you can't get spots out of a coin that are in the planchet such as these spots around the numbers "1914". These are never removeable from my understanding unless you scrubbed the coin. I did not have this knowledge when I sent this coin in. In should not have sent to NCS, but I am very frustrated that it was conserved in that the toning was removed and now you can see from the photos to follow in the subsequent email that the coin is now devalued. Now I have to try to accelerate the toning or wait 10 years?? and hope the coin does not come out looking AT and therefore ungradeable. If feel I have lost a significant amount of money on this coin in terms of it's selling powere due to the conservation. I paid $625 from Heritage and now I don't think I could get more than $400- 500 raw with the harilines now evident (I hope I could get that much?). I have put it in an paper envelope with a "Taco Bell" napkin in a ziplock with a dessicant in my safe and hope this "calms" the coin down. Please read the posts I started re: my 1869 "NCS before and after" on 11/27/08 in the "Numismatic Tangents" section of the Collectors Society Chat Boards. In the end I said I liked the coin, but I was rationalizing and trying to feel better about it. The more I thought it I do not like the 1869 at all after conservation and it has a very obvious cleaning due to the removal of the toning which happened to be quite attractive. As well the spot toward the front left of the obverse was not at all removed. These photos will follow. This coin costs me $550 which I could have recouped prior to the conservation and now I think I would lose several hundred in my opinion, but who knows. I will keep the coin and and am storing it the same as the 1914 D and will have to check it at regular intervervals. I was fine with the 1904 being bodybagged as I see how it could be considered recolored no problem there. Most of my coins that were conserved, except for the 1913 D which came out really well turned bluish, burgundy colors which were not very attractive to me personally. The one that bothers me the most was the 1881 IHC. I would have rather not had any of the spots removed as they were inconsequential to the coin in comparison to the negative color change that occurred after the conservation. I was very sad about this coin. The 1915 D came out nicely as far as the reverse spot to the bottom right but it turned blue as well and it was a nice RB coin prior (was in a 64 NGC holder and now in 63 RB). Overall I have very mixed feelings, but would feel apprehensive to send copper in again accept maybe for a finger print. I would depend on what was wrong with the coin. I spend about $240 dollars and got several graded but lost a lot of money as well so this is disappointing. I would like to have assistance getting the 1914 D graded again if the toning looks acceptable in time. Please tell me how I can be helped. > > Sincerely (deleted)[/QUOTE]

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