Anyone Ever Heard Of A TPG Making A Mistake On A Coin?

Sure, the services make mistakes, most often misprints on the label. I received a promotional silver eagle from PCGS years ago when I joined their Collector Society; it was a 2004-dated coin, but the label showed it as a 2001. It happens.

In the case of your half eagle, I expect it really is a 1909-D. The mintmarks on these coins are usually weakly struck and the serifs on the D would be in the most weakly-struck area, right at the rim. I believe there are other diagnostic features that distinguish the Denver and New Orleans issues and I expect ANACS would not have messed this up.

FYI, here are photos of a genuine 1909-O half eagle, from a Heritage auction. This one actually has a stronger-than-usual mintmark.

for future value, you will be better off with Canadian $5 and $ 10 gold coins 1912-1914 and Newfoundland $2 gold coins 1865 to 1888 ....just look at the minatge numbers and compare them with US.
they are the sleepers....No question about it..
hhb

Bryan, you are right.... and it will happen....Europeans have already started to see the light....NFL gold $2s went for very good $ at auctions.

hhbkiddo.....Canadian is nice, but I think Mexican is just prettier. I mean, the gold 50 Peso is one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful gold coin in the world in my opinion. I want to thank everyone for their input. It's given me some food for thought. I think once I get the coin back, I'll compare it with the picture Jaobler posted ( which I saved to my computer) and see how it compares. If it doesn't match up, I'll either sell the coin or trade it towards a gold 50 Peso as I said before. In any case, I think I'm off U.S. gold. My brief moment of finding a hidden treasure and having it turn out to be the one gold $5 I'd never want to own has kind of spoiled it for me. At this point, I wish it had just been the 09-P I thought I'd bought in the first place.

It's a "D".

Something you need to remember is these type of errors that the TPG's are making are NOT being made by the graders. They are either being made by the "lowly" clerks who open the packages and the type the invoice into the computer, or by the person who is making the submission. The guy entering it into the computer pretty much just enters what he sees on the invoice. He could make a typing mistake, or he can't make out somones poor handwriting on the invoice, or the submitter put the wrong thing on the invoice. (Remember thisdata entry guy may not know ANYTHING about coins.) The grader isn't going to notice that anything is wrong because what he sees is a coin and a sticker with a barcode on it. He just scans the barcode and types a grade into the computer. There is a good chance he has no idea how it is actually listed in the computer. The only person who might have a chance of catching the error is the finalizer who looks at the slabs before they are shipped, and he is probably more concerned to see if the grade seems right.