PCGS And CAC Incorrectly Graded My Coin

Some people seem to Ctrl C Ctrl V "need photos" on every thread.


The coin business is usually based on caveat emptor, or the responsibility is on the buyer unless otherwise noted. No returns. To add, many good sellers will take returns on a coin if it was counterfeit or described incorrectly (usually major mistakes) to keep their reputation in this small business.

A large auction house would take returns, especially if the item was not as described. If you sold it to the auction house outright, the responsibility would be on them 100%. Since you consigned, this is a little more complicated.

Either way, this makes the auction house and PCGS look bad. A good numismatist would have caught that mistake, but some things pass through. We are all humans in the end. You, the consigner, did not offer it to them as a proof, so the responsibility of the mistake obviously does not fall on you. This was a fault in the process of the auction house so the blame is on them. I believe you own the money and the responsibility is on PCGS, while the auction house can also cover to keep their reputation.

I would just like to add some additional information about this coin and correct the misinformation. The coin in question is not a Trade dollar (I think our controller or I typed a wrong digit when referring to the coin number). It's a 1866 Dime, which was originally graded by PCGS as a P-Mint, however, both PCGS and CAC did miss that it was a Weak S version of this date. For a circulated Weak S, the mint mark is extremely weak, and can very easily be missed.

Within 30 days of the auction (not six months), we canceled the sale, so we could get it fixed before we could re-offer in auction. The coin took several months to fix (fix at PCGS first, and then get re-stickered at CAC, at no cost to consignor, we paid for the resticker at CAC and the return shipping).

Yes, this is a rare mechanical error, and while I have apologized to the OP, he is set on his own mission to send emails to try to pressure us to do what he wants.

- Ian

Ouch, tough series in which the S can become virtually invisible once circulated.

This is clearly the fault of PCGS and not Great Collections or CAC. I understand how the GC pushes through material and can't strictly verify and stare at every coin for 5 minutes. I also understand the simple mistake because these are truly difficult mintmarks to discern on some issues.

If it were my coin, my guilty conscience would return the money to GC and run the coin through the system again. I vote the OP do the right thing in this situation. His wallet may not like it, but the coin collecting hobby as a whole will benefit from these small but morally good actions.

I'm gettinjg a little confused here.

I take it that the 1866 dime in coin facts is the corrected weak S.

The OP's 1871 proof is a Seated Liberty not a Trade dollar.

This is exactly why we need photos as the OP wasted our time.