I recently submitted a batch of about 20 coins to one of the two top grading companies, all of them being the best rainbow toned specimens I had come across in several months. It can be rather costly to submit coins, especially when you consider how long it takes to find toned coins worthy of submission. (see my other guide on identifying fake and real rainbow toned coins). As you may already know, I buy and sell primarily toned coins, every once in a while finding one that goes toward feeding my collection. So it is with great anticipation that I wait for submitted coins to travel through the grading process, as I am curious how they will come back. As a customer, I do expect that they come back, maybe in a prized STAR holder or grade that exeeded my own expectations, or maybe in a "body bag", but they should come back.

  With this group there were some winners, and one or two disappointments, and one coin that came back was not the coin I sent in! It was not mine! Has this ever happened to you? The coin in question was a 1962 Roosevelt dime. The one I sent in was from a mint set, and it had truly exceptional mint green and red patination on the obverse, and it's neon colors were lit with top notch luster, it easily had a chance of coming back graded MS66 or MS67. The coin that came back was all white and was graded MS65. It matched the date and mint mark of the coin I submitted, as shown on the invoice though. It was the kind of coin that one would leave around in a drawer, not wanting to spend it, not wanting to turn it in for scrap, but next to worthless all the same. I was at the time unable to address this with the company, as I was busily preparing to move - but will post the results in a future update of this guide.

  With thousands of coins coming in to these grading companies every day, accidents can happen. For future submittals I have come up with a way that should help combat this potential problem, and I thought I would share it with you. Besides the customary methods most of us employ when shipping coins to the grading company of your choice, such as:

• using new 2" x 2" vinyl flips for each coin
• carefully filling out the submission forms (online or paper)
• double checking all information, including shipping addresses
• buying enough insurance to actually replace the coins you are sending should they be lost
• carefully packaging the coins so that NO damage can occur during transit
• insisting on Registered Mail both ways                                                                                      

  I have created a document that ships with the coins that may greatly reduce the possibility of loss. It will create an extra level of care with regard to the handling of your coins before they get sent back to you. I took close-up photos of each coin, named the photo as the actual line item number on the submission form, placed them on a document and mailed this with the coins and required form. Without this you have no proof of any of the actual characteristics of a given coin, but when the receiver opens up your package, he or she will know you are serious about what you are sending them. The company now knows you have documented these coins prior to shipping them out, and that you are being extra vigilant.

  I used a great utility in Photoshop called a Contact Sheet. If you have Photoshop, just select File, Automate, Contact Sheet II and key in the amount of rows and columns you desire (4 by 4 is decent), and key in a resolution of 180, any less and you will print out pixelated photos, any more and your file size will be unecessarily large. Have your photos in a folder, named and ready to go, and make a contact sheet- it is automatic. If you don't have Photoshop, you can drag and drop your jpegs onto a Word document, or import them. Then just type in the line item number in a text box. Make sure you have the drawing tool on your toolbar, if you don't - select Tools, Customize, and check the Drawing box, then Close. Select the icon that looks like a newspaper headline, with the letter A in it. Click and drag a small rectangle under you photo, this is your text box.

  Whether the switch was intentional or accidental, I'll never know, but I will give the company the benefit of the doubt. I will however, deliver a package that will have little doubt as to what is inside, and what I expect to get back. This extra effort will greatly diminish coin swapping at the grading company, and will make you the consumer better prepared to back up a claim should something be not quite right. Best of luck. Mike

Mike - mikesartifacts     If you have found this guide to have been helpful in any way, click on the YES button below. Thanks!