I confess! I'm a slabber.

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Here is where we disagree. Slabs draw the eye to the grade and make the coin very difficult to see without more than half your mind on the grade. With a raw coin, the viewer looks at the coin. With a slabbed coin, the viewer never quite can. The viewer is always comparing it to the grade, strike, and surface numbers.

 

I reserve the right to introduce every slab I meet to my hammer. I have bought 2 coins in slabs because I wanted the coin. I normally ignore any and all ancients in slabs.

 

I don't have any ancients in slabs. I do have moderns in slabs because they came in them when purchased. I have some moderns I may get graded just because. I just can't see grading all my coins. My ancients are raw so I can actually hold a piece of 2000 year old in some cases history in my hand. I have civil war error coins raw for the same reason who knows who held the extra fine 1865 3CN or had one of my tokens in their pocket. Silly I know but I don't have a lot of high end pieces I have coins I can enjoy and share with the grand babies. I mean who wants to hold a bunch of plastic blocks unless you're playing 42.

 

LOL, whenever I see a thread with a "Mexican Standoff", I always wonder WHY?

I would have pulled the trigger BEFORE they could take a pic!

"He who hesitates is lost!"

 

I have 100's of Slabbed Modern coins, i have one Ancient very small gold coin and have broke out 4 slabbed ancient , i have broken many slabbed coins out for my modern albums. so i don't mind Slabs, its your coin slab away!!

 

A slab is a little like a gas station restroom key with a big block of wood attached to it so that people won't be tempted to put it in their pocket and leave without returning it. But, I can't stop loving them.

 

"I'm a slabber...
... I'm a grabber...
... I'm a mid-night crabber...
... I get my ancients on the run..."

 

As expected, this has turned into another heated discussion on TPGs and slabbing. We have them every few months and I'm okay with that. It's an important topic because I believe the spread of TPG disease is detrimental to the hobby of ancient coin collecting.

I can understand a new collector's notion that buying an NGC coin is "safe", even though it's not. Is an NGC-slabbed coin less likely to be fake? That's a reasonable assumption if the generalization takes into account coins from all sources (eBay, etc). When compared only to sellers who offer lifetime guarantees of authenticity, no. I always hope that such collectors will soon realize that TPG slabbing isn't necessary or desirable (by most collectors). Learn about the coin you're interested in and buy from a reputable seller who offers a guarantee of authenticity.

At the risk of offending a very small number of CoinTalk Ancients members, what I really don't understand is willfully sending ancient coins to NGC for grading. It's one thing to buy one already slabbed, but to pay money for a coin to be sealed in a case? I truly don't understand and believe it must be due to the wild success of TPGs in modern coins and collector conditioning. What a success story those TPGs are, from a business standpoint. Just look how many threads there are from people who are considering cracking out their TPG'd mass-produced coin in hopes of resubmitting it for a higher grade. What a coup for the TPGs! Grade creep, ever-changing (Improved!!!) holders, special occasion holders, "crossovers"... so many opportunities to slab and slab again. With the complicity of modern coin collectors, TPGs have apparently irrevocably changed the hobby. With modern coin the emphasis seems to be almost exclusively about the grade. Grading ancients is wildly subjective.

If really you want your coin in a slab, just buy a re-openable slab and put it in there. As @red_spork pointed out, it is sometimes absolutely necessary to be able to inspect all parts of an ancient coin, repeatedly over time. How are you going to do that if it is in a slab? This is especially important for bronze coins. Prutot and lepta seem particularly prone to bronze disease. What happens when a slabbed prutah starts corroding? Will you even recognize it in time to avert significant damage? Will you let it rot in its coffin? Break it out and treat it, losing your $40 slab?

Collecting ancient coins generally requires more effort than does collecting modern machine-made and virtually identical coins. I resent the idea of slabs in part because it entices new collectors to join in without expending little to no educational effort and (at least in my mind) not really appreciating the coin.

I fear that if slabbing becomes more prevalent it will lead to greater numbers of moderns collectors jumping in and based on the outrageous prices they're willing to pay for mass-produced identical coins distinguished only by a third party's opinion of MS 65 over MS 64, they'll find ancients to be bargains (which they are), and then I'll have unwelcome competition-- unwelcome not only because of the deeper pockets but because I want the buyers to love, appreciate, and know something about their coins other than the scant information on the label, not just buying them because of someone else's opinion or for a registry set.

You can call me a hypocrite and I can't say you'd be wrong. I have purchased a small number of slabbed coins over the last few years, when the coin was well-priced, desirable, and otherwise not available at the time. At least I have removed them from the slab, although I do feel some residual guilt for buying a slabbed coin to begin with.

 

Thanks @TIF , you have stated this beautifully. Before I bought a single ancient I read for several months. I read books on the coins I was interested in as well as the historical period. I also read online sources such as this site. In my not so humble opinion, doing otherwise is asking to be taken for a ride by unscrupulous people ie: TPGs.

 

I have bought a couple of "Widow's Mites" but not slabbed. This coin is a very emotional coin for some people, having the chance of being handled by some of the people in the Bible. With that as a consideration, being able to actually touch the coin is an emotional experience without a plastic shield being in the way. I bought one and put it in a mylar flip so it could be removed and taped it to a religious picture of the "poor woman" who gave to the temple. I sent this to a religious friend of mine and she was very appreciative.

 

Most collectors on this site would agree strongly with this sentiment.

It's completely understandable that you might want to store or exhibit your coins in a slab, to protect them when you pass them around to others interested in the coin. For this purpose you can purchase re-openable slabs, make your own labels, while still being able to remove the coin for close inspection as well as just to hold history in your hands. But purposely sending an unslabbed ancient coin to NGC or any other slabbing service will probably remain unfathomable to most of us on this site.

Just a thought: do you think NGC would have detected my Hadrian Hispania aureus forgery and refused to slab it? Very, very unlikely, and so would have continued a fraud in perpetuity.

Well, I don't agree that this is hypocritical. Desirable ancient coins will sometimes end up in slabs, and it won't make me any less likely to purchase one.

True story: Two weeks ago my dealer called me while at the Heritage auction. He noticed a slabbed aureus (seems that Heritage is slabbing all their coins) whose condition looked much better than the online picture (in a slab) illustrated. He called me from the auction and we set a bid. I won the coin for about 40% less than my maximum and probably 50% less than that coin would have brought unslabbed with a better picture. While the condition is only about EF, it cost 1/5 - 1/8 of what an EF example of this coin would hammer at another auction, if an EF ever came to the market. So slabs can work against the seller/consignor in some cases. Of course, my dealer will remove it from the slab before sending it on to me.

 

Slabs are like window shopping - you can look but cannot touch the coins.

#4 is probably the strongest reason not to slab. One of the traditional appeals of ancient coin collecting is being able to hold 'history in your hands'.

It's also easier to authenticate and properly attribute a coin when it isn't viewed through plastic.

But, as long as you're happy and enjoying ancients, do what you like and pay no mind to us 'anti-slabbers'.

 

I've only 1 ancient in a slab, bought it that way. While I've amassed a decent amount of ancient coins the past few months. I'm proud to say none of them are in slabs & while I own them never will be.
While I agree with @TIF 100% and don't see her as being hypocritical. I would hope more collectors would see it the way she does.
As long as there's a few dollars to make big business isn't going to stop.

If that's the way you want to spend your money though, that's on you. Part of what I love about living in a place your free to make your own decisions. As long as it doesn't draw the attention of my newer fascination to the vision of big business who am I to say what you can or can't do?
But if and when it does as TIF says it might it then affects me. Then I may speak more of how I disagree with slabbing.

I do however have several modern coin's slabbed. Again I bought them that way and intended to. It's a different market and should remain that way.
I don't believe that I will ever send a coin to be graded. If I do rest assured it will not be an ancient, for all the reasons already mentioned.

I do think it's an admirable thing the OP is doing, giving away coins to others who may have never thought about buying coins. His heart is in the right place. But I also agree the ideas of purchasing open able slabs a better alternative that a TPG any day

 

Awesome picture lol. Good post.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Deacon, you seem like a great dude and I like your sweet and honest intentions, but I'll always consider slabbed ancients as a total "FAIL" ...



... eventually, the practice will merely add $50 to our coin-targets (slabbing-fees), yet there will certainly be dudes that'll start producing fake slabs => gawd, making fake slabs is certainly easier than making fake ancient coins!! (or am I missing something?)

 

It takes some stones being the new guy on the ancient cell block and admitting his love for slabbing.

 

I think I eased my way in after a couple of well,,,, not so good posts. 5 or 6 months ago. Still learning.
Surely-Hopefully the OP will learn some kinda lesson from all this.

 

SIDE-STEP => Deacon, I certainly didn't mean to disrespect your sweet OP-coins ... they are very cool (congrats)

ummm, I just dislike your need to buy slabs (I like you so far ... have a great night)

I will be immersed in NFL (I'm sure that most of you find that more disgusting than slabbed coins, eh?)



cheers, coin gang (we're different, but we're all awesome)