Etiquette Question

It's not that I was ok with a light cleaning. I'm saying that the cleaning must have been very light since NGC said it was cleaned and I didn't pick up on it. I looked at the coin for a long time, with all the due diligence I know at this point. Considering how many people have been in coin collecting for 30, 40 and 50 years, I'm a novice, but I'm getting better and better at recognizing a cleaning. I don't get fooled much anymore. He showed me something else in the Barber dime I was looking for and he said "it's been cleaned." This Bay Bridge coin was marked as "BU near gem."

Clearly, from the last two posts, opinions vary a widely. I wonder where the majority will come down.

If I were to go back, I wasn't planning on busting the door down and yelling. It would more be like, this is what happened. Can we do anything? Is there any guarantee you put on your coin when you mark it as BU near gem? This isn't a guy who's some ebay scammer. He's been in the same place for 50+ years. If he was giving people bum coins for that long, too many people would know where to find him.

Spoken like a TRUE collector, I have bought coins "slabbed" but have ALWAYS removed them so that I can make my OWN determination of the coin.
I then put the coin (If up to scratch) in my collection with MY grade on the 2x2
If I am unhappy with the coin I simply put it up on ebay with a 99 cent start without a grade, I normally take a "hit" doing this but it is better that just chucking it in a box in disgust.

I think EVERYONE has their OWN personal standards as to how they grade their own coins, I find personally the more "Picky" you are the more accurate your grades will be.

Some of the coins are cleaned so subtly that it takes a USB microscope to pick them out so don't feel bad about buying a "Cleaned" coin.
I would take the coin in the holder to your dealer and work something out.
This is a perfect way to check out the honesty and integrity of the dealer.

A couple of years ago I purchased a 1851 3 cent silver at a show from a dealer. We both graded it as low MS. I decided to have it slabbed and it came back details, tooled. Since I could not see the tooling, I took it to several other dealers and no one could see the tooling. All had different opinions where it MIGHT have been. I ran into the dealer at another coin show and showed him coin - he looked, could not find the tooling and offered to refund me. I declined because I really like the coin. However, if he had not offered a refund, I would have been OK with that since I have a relationship with this guy. He let's me pick his brain during lulls in shows and has spent lots of time chatting with my son, answering his endless questions.

If you had indicated at the time of purchase of your intent to slab it and then asked what he thought it would come back as, then I would say you should feel no remorse going back to see if a price adjustment/refund could happen. But you used your judgement and his judgement in the purchase and that is part of what you paid for. (Plus, without pictures it is difficult to tell). If it were me, I would consider bringing it back to him just as an FYI. Chances are he will not agree with the grade and you can see how he handles these situations. Just take into consideration if this is someone you would like to continue to do business with in deciding how you approach him.

Pics would be nice, but depending on the accuracy of the images...it could go either way.

Sometimes just a "spot" was removed once upon a time and and it would still merit a details grade.

This is one of the many reasons I only buy slabbed coins from the TOP III companies.

You could bring it to the attention of the dealer, but (s)he is probably not going to do a thing about it.

It was their opinion and that is that, whether you are talking about the dealers opinion or NGC's opinion.

There are those who have their coins slabbed for authenticity and then crack 'em out and put 'em in their albums.

I too would like to see what the coin looks like and go from there.

If it was me, I'd just put it in one of my Albums and forget the rest. I do not have any slabbed coins. If I get one I break out the coin anyway. If it is or was cleaned, I don't care since I'm not going to ever sell it. As long as it doesn't look like it was polished to mirror condition, in an my Albums it goes. If I got one that the TPGS said was cleaned, it is just a piece or part of the slab that ends up in the garbage anyway. People are just to slab happy today.

No, unless he guaranteed that it would slab problem free (Which I'm sure he didn't because you would have mentioned it.) Is there any kind of a guarantee on the dealers opinon as to the grade? Probably not. He had an opinion of the grade, so did you and you probably agreed with him because you bought the coin Now NGC has their OPINION and it is different from the dealers. Guess what NGC is not always right. They are good but they are not infalible. This is why you really need to learn to make your own decisions and not to depend on others to make them for you.

Yes, they could be wrong. How often do they call uncleaned coins cleaned? Probably about as often as they call cleaned coins uncleaned. In other words, probably a fair amount of the time.

and Yes. opinions and standards change all the time. All the services say they will not slab a coin with PVC contamination, but there have been a lot of stories of coins being cracked out and sent back in only to be rejected for PVC contamination. If that's so, why wasn't it rejected the first time it was submitted? (And some of these cases are from coins being sent back to the same service.

Coin just arrived. Here are some photos. Now that it has been marked as clean, I think I can see it. But, if I can see it, this guy with 50+ years in the business darn well could have seen it, too. I don't think NGC made a mistake. There are wipe marks on the bear which I thought, at the time, may had been die polishing. They are so organized and careful. Also, the amount of luster threw me off. Ugh.. theoretically, I still like this hobby, but there are just so many people who are out to pawn off inferior items and steal your money.
It still might be worth going back and having a conversation, which will obviously result in nothing or something. At the worst, he knows that I now know and that he's lost a customer who was planning on going back regularly. And, I don't really need to worry about staying on his good side. At this point I don't care. At best, I'm not sure. Maybe an accident and a refund.


Thanks again for the feedback

It is a nice coin. The satin look is a sure sign of a cleaning.
I see veteran dealers all the time, especially at the big shows, selling obviously cleaned coins as original, all raw of course.
I remember who they are and avoid in the future.