Cracking open a PCGS slab

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by WingedLiberty, Mar 5, 2011.

  1. WingedLiberty

    WingedLiberty Well-Known Member

    I have heard this "cracking open" term used on this board from time to time.

    Is it possible to open a PCGS slab without damaging the slab (say for photographing the coin) ... and then sealing the slab up again? Or are PCGS slabs designed such that you cannot (easily) open them and if you do you can never put them back together -- that basically they are smashed or broken open -- and in process distroying the slab?

    I guess that latter might make sense since some unscruptulous people might take the slab and then insert a lesser coin.
     
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  3. Ahab

    Ahab Member

    Not a chance.
     
  4. +1
     
  5. SoaringEagle

    SoaringEagle New Member

    Just running your fingernail into the seam cracks a chunk off in my experience. I cannot see how anyone could do it without shattering that slab to bits.
     
  6. mralexanderb

    mralexanderb Coin Collector

    Both PCGS & NGC slabs are sonically sealed where the plastic is fused together. They call this "tamper evident" not tamper proof. Once you crack out a coin from one of these slabs it's all over for that slab. You'd have to re-submit the coin for a grade.

    Bruce
     
  7. WingedLiberty

    WingedLiberty Well-Known Member

    Thanks everyone ... this makes sense.
    It makes photographing a little bit harder, but I'll muddle though!
     
  8. 5dollarEdunote

    5dollarEdunote Coin Connoisseur

    Sorry to ask this, but Ive seen people do this alot...what does it mean?
     
  9. mark_h

    mark_h Somewhere over the rainbow

    It just means they agree with the post. And -1 means they disagree. Or least that is how I take it.
     
  10. coinmaster1

    coinmaster1 Active Member

    I, somehow, recently cracked an NGC slab without cracking it. It was very surprising, and it was only the second slab I had ever cracked open. I wasn't able to reseal it, of course, I just wanted the MS-66 1946-D Lincoln inside of it for my album. :D
     
  11. Tater

    Tater Coin Collector

    I have found that the PCGS slab is the worse one to crack. Don't thing any slab could be resealed.
     
  12. BUncirculated

    BUncirculated Well-Known Member

    Unfortunately those slabs are hermetically sealed.
     
  13. kanga

    kanga 65 Year Collector

    And stored on Funk & Wagnall's porch!
    (How many of you understand THAT reference!?)
     
    Brett_in_Sacto likes this.
  14. oval_man

    oval_man Elliptical member

    I had to google it. Pretty funny. (How on earth would one have found something like that out before google?)
     
  15. BUncirculated

    BUncirculated Well-Known Member

    Ask mom!

    She knows everything!
     
  16. HULLCOINS

    HULLCOINS Junior Member

    So does one saw it or take a chisel and hammer to a slab? Is the label able to be saved?
     
  17. oval_man

    oval_man Elliptical member

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