The president of the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) has apologized for what she called a “regrettable mistake” after the firm accidentally sent one of its client’s coins through its restoration service. This summer, collector Daniel Sutton, of Granite Bay, Calif., submitted an 1890 silver crown – a British key-date coin – to PCGS for certification. The coin, one of only 93 reported by PCGS, earned a grade of Mint State-63 as the eighth highest-graded example in the firm’s population report. Struck in 92.5 per cent silver with what Sutton called “beautiful reverse toning,” the coin also went through the PCGS restoration service without his permission; it was submitted on a grading form, he added. “There is a completely different form for restoration and it required my signature which they do not have,” Sutton wrote on the Virtual Coin Show Facebook group, facebook.com/groups/RTCoins, in September. Continue reading →

An 1890 British crown sent to Professional Coin Grading Service for grading was mistakenly sent through the firm’s restoration service. The U.S.-based grading service ‘took immediate action in good faith to reach a positive resolution with the customer,’ President Stephanie Sabin told CCN in December. Photo by Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS.com).