Coin rated ALTERED even though the coin is an original 1 1

[Shahn31]

Hi , i had sent in a coin that was collected by my sons grandfather during ww2 and was in a coin book that had been locked up since the 1960s , i recently opened the book removed the coin and sent it for grading , it was a steel 1943 penny in almost perfect condition . I did not even clean it ! The coin was not purchased and has been handed over in the family and stored since ww2 . Now i get a grading of ALTERED ! B.S  who is looking at these? The coin looks too good to be true but it has been well kept . I think this is wrong what NGC is claiming my coin is ! I want to know why , what and where their concerns are about this coin  ! I an very upset about the whole matter and the money that went down the drain !

[Coinbuf]

On 10/4/2024 at 4:39 PM, Shahn31 said:

Hi , i had sent in a coin that was collected by my sons grandfather during ww2 and was in a coin book that had been locked up since the 1960s , i recently opened the book removed the coin and sent it for grading , it was a steel 1943 penny in almost perfect condition . I did not even clean it ! The coin was not purchased and has been handed over in the family and stored since ww2 . Now i get a grading of ALTERED ! B.S  who is looking at these? The coin looks too good to be true but it has been well kept . I think this is wrong what NGC is claiming my coin is ! I want to know why , what and where their concerns are about this coin  ! I an very upset about the whole matter and the money that went down the drain !

While I can understand your frustration this is the section of the forum for questions and discussions about the NGC registry.   Your complaint would be better served posted in the ask NGC section of the forum.   I would suggest that you call or email customer service on Monday, it may be possible for a representative to access the graders notes if any were recorded.

Additionally, your situation is not the first time someone has had a coin passed down thru family hands that was altered at some time in the past.   It was a very common practice in the 50's and 60's for steel cents to be replated as the zinc coating worn off very quickly and the steel would start to rust and the cents began to look very tatty.   This replating made the coins easier for coin dealer to sell, unfortunately today the coin community doesn't look at these reprocessed coins in a favorable light.   It is very likely that your son's grandfather was unaware of this practice of replating the steel cents when he acquired it.

If you can upload some clear in focus cropped photos of the coin we might be able to provide you with some insight on if your coin has the reprocessed look.

[powermad5000]

On 10/4/2024 at 6:39 PM, Shahn31 said:

The coin looks too good to be true

Typically in this hobby, this statement leads to the conclusion that it is in fact too good to be true.

There was a period from when this coin was ejected from the press until it entered into your family's hands. Unless the coin was put into someone's hand directly at the Mint and this was documented, there is no way to tell what happened even if in a short time from the time it left the Mint until the time it reached a collectors hands (or even non collector who just decided to just put it away). There is also a significant discrepancy in your timeline. You state it was stored/acquired during WWII but locked up in the 60's.

Many of these steel cents were altered and some were plated by businesses at the time to promote coin sales at their companies. Your frustration is understood but hundreds of thousands of coins over time have had imparted some surface issue at some point, especially when the practice of collectors "cleaning" their coins was considered an acceptable practice which has largely been shunned in modern times as collectors pursue coins with original untouched surfaces.

I agree that you can contact an NGC representative to look into the situation, but without you yourself being able to self grade your coins and look for potential issues such as this, there is probably not much that is going to change the situation. It is important for anybody wishing to submit coins to a TPG grading service to accurately self grade their coins before doing so, and in the absence of having such skills to be able to do so, to have a local expert or professional look over the coin before the decision to submit a coin to a third party grading service be determined.