NGC Damaged My Medal - What do I do?!?

NGC finished grading my January submission (Feb. one is still scheduled for grading), and I can finally see the grades online. One of my submissions was a turtle ship medal, which I believed was not unreasonable at the time of submission as being at least a PF-69 DCAM worthy medal. However, it came back a few grades lower.... and with a huge gouge or mark of some sort and a bunch of other scratch marks on it! In fact, it doesn't even look like the same medal at all! It looks like they used it as a curling stone while watching the Winter Olympics!

There are only 7 of these graded by NGC in total, so it's not like they mixed it up with another submission (I guess they could have if the same grader/employee received the exact same medal from another submitter... but that's highly unlikely). There's also no way that it was damaged during shipment because I packed that baby up real well.

What sort of recourse do I have and what am I supposed to do in this situation?? File a claim and show the pictures from whom I received the medal from?

Here's the medal that I submitted, and the medal that NGC slabbed:




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Could that be a mark on the holder?

 

I guess it could be, but that mark looks as if it's a frosted device (?) and a completely different medal altogether.

 

I don't believe those are the same medal. Look at the "1" in the date and the position of the dots near the bottom of the "1". On the top photos, the base of the "1" is centered on a dot, and on the bottom set, the nearest dot is offset to the left of the "1".

 

Have you contacted NGC with your concerns?

 

I'm on the phone now.

 

Could be the angle of the photo... not sure.

 

The lighting is clearly so different as to be wary of what one sees.

 

OK, NGC told me that it's impossible that it's from a different submitter because each individual item is marked with the customer number. I sent an email containing the original photos and a comparison with the online cert photos to the rep directly, which she confirmed receipt of; she says it's going to management and NGC may "buy the coin" from me if it's found that NGC damaged the coin. She also told me that there's no policy on this sort of thing per se, and that it's all on a case-by-case basis.

So it must be that someone at NGC damaged it. This is an over-sized medal so it's not unlikely that it was accidentally mishandled. But, that person didn't self-report the damage. There must be cameras...

And, even if that huge gouge is on the brand new over-sized slab (which is what they're supposed to check for during the Quality Control phase), there are a bunch of hairline scratches that weren't on the medal before. It graded as a PF-66DCAM - I only submitted this medal because it's clear to any collector that it's a 69 (or a 68 if the graders are having a bad day).

 

The way this looks reflected in a downward pattern/movement, makes me think its a mark on the holder. I dunno.

 

Keep us updated. So stressful! What if they offer you melt?

 

What should I accept - does anyone know? I have no idea how to look at this - it's the first time this has happened to me with any of my submissions, so I don't know what's "fair" or the minimum compensation.

 

I don't know anything about the medal, so I can't help you with value. The only time I know a TPG changed something about one of my coins is that they dipped mine once. It came back to me without the color it had when I sent it in. I was bummed out, but I believe they did it so they could see the surfaces better, which had some underlying issues. (No, I didn't tone it to begin with).

 

If you want a quick education on lighting and why I'm unsatisfied with coin photos, look at how different the two sets look, especially the Statue of Liberty side.

 

Yeah, the two medals in the two sets of photos are very different, which could be a difference in lighting; but the difference in grade is substantial. I inspected the medal thoroughly before submission and there should have been only the minutest marks.

Here's the cert lookup page for the turtle ship medal that I submitted. It zooms in much better and more clearly than the photos that I posted.

https://www.ngccoin.com/certlookup/4659770-001/66/

 

Well, I can see ipens fingers holding his camera. I think he just snapped quick photos for his own records before submitting... which may come in handy, yet.

 

Based on the NGC page, now I really think its a nick on the holder, reflected onto the coin. But we shall see.

 

Why do you not know if the offending mark is or is is not on the slab?

 

I guess the best case scenario is that almost all of the marks including the small scratches are on the slab, and NGC somehow mislabeled the slab with the wrong grade. In which case, I'll have to wait for this to come in the mail and confirm it in person.

 

Inside surface of slab, I’m guessing.