1977-D Silver Half - Call Me Crazy!

In other words...they will not decide one way or another.

It depends on whether they gave it a code 86(No Decision) or code 90(Not Genuine). 86 gets you a refund when they cannot definitively authenticate it or deem it counterfeit, that is usually the case for coins with extreme damage of some sort that makes marker matching impossible. 90 gets you no refund and the coin is shipped back in a body bag and I bet that this coin falls into the latter category. Altered genuine coins also fall under the 90 code(ex. a 1922-D Lincoln Cent with the D removed).

Yeah, that's a real downer, I hope they'll at least reimburse you for it.

86 No Decision- Coin's status inconclusive
No Opinion
Fee refunded. In the rare instances where the experts at PCGS are unable to determine conclusively that a coin is either genuine or counterfeit, that coin will be returned to the submitter ungraded.

PCGS spends a great deal of time examining coins that have been harshly cleaned, corroded and or tooled. PCGS must be able to positively determine that a coin is both genuine and has not been "holed and plugged". In some situations the surface of the coin is completely destroyed, and in these instances PCGS will not render an opinion on the coin. Many counterfeit coins are harshly altered or intentionally damaged in an attempt to fool the grading services. If a coin is worn or damaged to an extent that makes it impossible to identify the date, mint mark, or variety, a no-grade 86 will be issued.

90 Not Genuine- Fake coin or altered mintmark, date, variety
Questionable Authenticity
Fee not refunded. The coin is either a known counterfeit or exhibits characteristics of known counterfeits and is therefore highly suspect. This category includes otherwise genuine coins which have been altered to simulate rarities (re-engraved dates, added mintmarks, removed mintmarks, etc.)

it certainly didn't appear plated to me, given that it has a ring going around the reeding, much like a normal clad/silver.

bigfred people do things for various reasons some unexplainable

Some like to help , give and care thats how they achieve pleasure in life , while some like to lie ,steal,cheat decieve that how they get their pleasure

I dont know why but someone took a baseball bat to my mail box. The police cuaght him bashing mail boxes late at night another weekend and asked how many he damaged, he confessed to over 20 mail boxes smiled about it and only regreted getting cuaght

He took some secret joy in doing this dont know why and this was a guy over 40yrs old that acted alone while he did this. The creepiest part is the police said he would smash a mail box at 3-5 am the later come back and watch at 8-9 am from a parked car as the people pulled out of their driveway to work and found the smashed box in the road. This guy got off one watching people finding something he destroyed

Yet some people give all they have in life to help others
I met a lady that lived alone and sheltered homeless cats she was missing teeth and never bought stuff for herself yet paid 100$ a week in food to feed over 50 cats living in her house.

If someone thought they could plate a half dollar silver and throw it into circulation and see if it ever popped up online , thats prob how they got their jolies luaghing and following this post all the way.