I am relatively new to submitting coins to PCGS. I submitted a few coins for crossover that I acquired 10+ years ago - a mix of ANACS and PCI. On PCGS' order details they moved through the process, reaching "Encapsulation" a few days after PCGS received them. They stayed in that status for 3 business days and have now reverted to "Grading". It appears that they moved backwards in the process. What is the typical cause of this? Is this part of the quality control, some kind of internal error or does it mean nothing at all?
This site should help: https://www.pcgs.com/pcgs-grading-process-video I had to minimize all open tabs before I could see the video. Thanks for asking the question because I now have a clearer idea of the grading process at PCGS. From reading the text provided by PCGS it appears the encapsulation takes place in "The Sealing Department", then goes on to "Grade Verification". Hope that answers your question. Here's one from NGC: https://www.ngccoin.com/coin-grading/grading-process/
I would say that if it moved from encapsulation back to grading a question or disagreement about the grade was raised so it moved back to grading to be re-reviewed.
This is happening with every, single, order. I have an economy grading order, a quarterly special order, and a crossover order there now and they have all bounced back and forth in the process. It's all wacky and out of order. Mine are doing the same thing as yours: Jumping from Received to Grading to Encapsulation.... then back to Grading, then Encapsulation then QA, then back to Encapsulation, etc etc. Their new system is supposed to be helpful and more transparent, but its only causing confusion.
I thought this as well until I experienced it happening with all 3 of my current orders and the previous 2 orders before those that were in process.
The same happened with my last 2 subs. Just pay no attention and figure it's going to take about a month from start to finish, no matter what module it shows the sub to be in.
Thanks for the responses. I submitted a regular order on the same day as the crossover and the regular order was graded and shipped within one week and seemed to move through the process with no complications.
I'm not trying to pick an argument or anything like that, but the way I interpret their process, the 2nd time it goes to grading after encapsulation to verify it was graded correctly the first time it went through the grading process. So IMHO I don't see this as jumping back and forth. The 1st grading is done with the raw coin and the 2nd time is after encapsulation. Peace
It's all speculation. But I've had one order go back to grading twice, and another go back three times.
The detailed timeline is a new level of transparency that we're not used to seeing. Going backward a stage probably means someone had an "upstream" question in the interest of the entire submission being accurate, or QA found a mistake or a chipped holder. You wouldn't have known how frequently this used to happen, since your submission languished in "In Process" until grades posted a day before the coins shipped.
My order says 1 in process but came back counterfiet with a registered number that says invalid what is this all about ?
That means that the coin is counterfeit, but at the very beginning of the process, each of your coins is assigned a number that will become the number on the holder. But during grading, your coin was deemed counterfeit. When they post that result, they post the coin's cert number as well, but it is invalid since the coin is fake.
The most likely answer is they have several internal states and the translation to external view isn't quite right. I.e. an IT problem. Say they have three positions within the encapsulation room... incoming, in progress, QA, and then transferred to shipping. If the IT confuses QA in the grading room with QA in the encapsulation room, then the external view will match what we see. Problems like this with the so-called Pizza tracker are fairly common in the industry.
Probably a question with current grading, I am going to bet that the problem lies with those coins graded by PCI based on my experience with crossover sending coins to both PCGS & NGC. Semper Fi
Based on my 2 submissions (4 coins each) to PCGS some years ago, I would NEVER submit coins to them again. Highly whimsical grading in some cases, in my opinion, & by a very experienced dealer. Rudeness by the young phone twit when I called. Etc. I'd use NGC if I had it to do over again.
