Does PCGS Make Mistakes?

Of course they make mistakes. All kinds of them. Including putting the wrong label on slabs, labeling no errors as errors, I have even seen an obvious vise job coin labeled as legit.


You really need to see the essay in my signature for an eye opener as to how prone to error the grading companies are as compared to the their reputation people just assume them to have. It shows an undeniable 30% error minimum in a rookie level designation of the No FG variety Kennedy half dollars. All the data is linked to their own website to be checked out for yourself. It even presents a fact about identifying actual 1982 No FG variety which the companies seem either not to know or never they never mention and mis-identify 1982 polished off initials (well..almost polished off) as being the legit no FG for this date.
How about a slabbed vise coin by PCGS?

The certification number does not work anymore...meaning they corrected the error.

The original location of the PCGS linked webpage can still be found online at PCGS website where they link for closeup pictures:
https://d1htnxwo4o0jhw.cloudfront.n...44923183.jpg




The fact still remains...two of their trained experts labeled an obviously damaged coin as being a mint error. The third grader passed it along as well.


There is absolutely nothing right or wrong about liking slabbed coins (b/c hobbies are about what we LIKE) or in using these companies. But an education about the reality of them goes a long ways towards people being educated in how not to lose money when dealing with them. Too many people just assume b/c "well, everyone thinks..." that these companies are THE unquestionable experts of the hobby. This concept is a market driven fallacy.

The essay on the PCGS wrongly confirming no-FG Kennedy halves is interesting. However, it seems to me that confirming a no-FG half by the 1 on the obverse has a major flaw. The assumption is that the no-FG reverse die was never paired with any other obverse dies. That seems like a shaky assumption.

It doesn't undermine the overall point that PCGS clearly graded, slabbed, and attributed many coins that were obviously not the true variety coin. The fact that someone paid $625 for a slabbed coin just shows how sloppy some people can be, particularly when the FG on the no-FG half was clearly visible in images.

Remember it is not the graders that make the labels (although they make enough errors!). Any secretary can make a typo.

The font checks out OK which is something non-typical with a lot of Chinese fakes. The volume of coins the company goes through through in a day also makes it easy for a typo to slip through. When you watch the video of their process, you will find they check the slabs with the initial list to make sure the coin is what the list says. I can imagine at the end of the day any number of checkers could have something like this slip as it is a very repetitive task.

Especially nowadays where people do not know the difference between things like loose & lose or shinny and shiny (former teacher!). Not being mean...just factual. I have enough of my own faults I have to deal with daily.

@Brandmeister Thanks for the backup!

I imagine what's typed into their database automatically goes on the label. I'm surprised it's not a dropdown with only the allowed values - I'm assuming it's not misspelled in a dropdown list or we'd see it on every slab designated with that. A spelling error is pretty small beans.

There was that whole gradeflation thing where they deleted all their coin facts images presumably to remove the evidence... quite a few years ago.

If you're gonna pay $50-100 for a professional service, they should furnish a professional looking product. Having the coin right side up seems like a very basic expectation.

What I'm specifically questioning in my post is the possibility that a false dies designation would be attributed to a genuine coin by mistake, not about alterations, vise jobs or spelling mistakes. I would assume that they would have many procedures for designating a coin as fake vs genuine. I'm just wondering if its worth resending it.

I looked up that Imporpor slab and yes it is a genuine slab and yes the item description on their website has that weird spelling. Could it be an actual real word that is some sort of jargon?
I also collect error slabs. Once purchased a ram shilling that had the country as NZ on the slab in the dealers photo, blasted coin turned up reslabbed correctly as Australian and I only purchased it because it was a goof slab, but there was another goof in that it was also an error coin with a large lamination fault.
I also have multiple counterfeit coins in genuine slabs and dozens of coins with wrong mint or wrong variety attribution.
Then there is a gem coin that was graded as cleaned because it looked too good to be true, but several others from that same roll were graded top of the pops 67.
Or a sixpence that has a super high gem grade 67+on the slab that was graded and imaged showing a patch of green corrosion,
Then there are coins of which I have dozens of the same date where I can line them up from lowest to highest grades and can spot coins that are overgraded and others undergraded, and not by a half point or point but 2 points.
I've done submissions with 50+ coins and I presume others have as well and do they ever have multiples on their desk being graded or imaged and put the wrong coin back in the wrong coin flip or put the wrong coin with the wrong label as they encase them? Easy on a production line process when dealing with big batches.