I have a few princesses burning holes in my type set album... what is a guy to do? They are #alltime US coins but overall not exceptional examples and about as good as I can ever hope given all my other collecting goals. I plan to hand this album down to my family in 40-50 years... To paraphrase The Bard... To crack or not to crack? That is the question.
I would keep them slabbed! No matter what, they're always worth more money slabbed, even the cleaned coins!
I don't disagree but I am taking the long view here. I am building a collection that I I hope to be generational, as modest as my resources allow anyway. My logic is if I ever need to liquidate, me or my heirs could always re-slab them down the road. At that point any additional fees will be irrelevant compared to the long term investment. Or perhaps some other TPG service or electronic grading might be the norm in 20-30 years. Who knows?
I am in the mind of free the coins. Put them where you will see them the most. Plus that 3 dollar could use a good skin.
That is a decision only you can make. I hate TPG tombs, even though I'm entombing my first raw coin. And I haven't used albums since my Whitman Cent Folder only ran through 1968. How many coins did I damage using one coin to press another coin into those cutouts? It's like whether to store them in your gun safe or a safety deposit box. You do what you like and forget the advice.
This is not advice, only my personal preference. I would keep the slabbed coins that fill the holes stored with the folder and let future generation(s) decide what to do with them. Advice cannot be given on a subject like this, as responses will inevitably be how each individual collector would prefer to see their own collection displayed. It is your collection, your choice
Be brave , crack them babies out....I've cracked out many. If a dealer has a nice raw coin, well it will be sold for the same price as if it were TPG graded & CAC'd.
Is it true that if you unslab a lightly cleaned coin, the toning over subsequent years will obscure the cleaning more? What about dipped coins? I am trying to understand why to crack a coin out, unless you think it's undergraded and want to submit it to a TPG to see if you can get a better grade.
No because then you would be costing your heirs money and inconvenience, would you really want to do that simply to fill the holes in your gold coin folder?
It is obvious that you have several other raw gold coins as well as many other raw coins in your type album. So, you only have four out of what, 60 or 70, coins in slabs? If your heirs want to sell, and the selling necessitates slabbing the others, then what is the issue with slabbing four more coins? If this is truly a 40 year time horizon, then I'd say it doesn't matter financially at all what you do with these four coins. So, do what your heart tells you is my advice. If you do crack them, I suggest you keep the slab and labels for future reference to back up the grades.
From my experience, which, I admit, is over 40 years in the past, Gold Dollars to do not do well in that type of album. They are too thin and end up getting caught between the paper and the album slide, which can cause hairlines and damage. Do yourself a favor, and "imagine" that they are in the album. You could take pictures and make cardboard cut-outs for the empty holes.
All that I am saying is that when the coin was cleaned it lost that original look/skin. Putting it in an album will allow a little bit of an original skin to return. How much I don't know.
My suspicion is anyone who would consider releasing the coin from the tomb doesn't really want it entombed. But most coins cracked out are sent right back to be entombed hoping for an upgrade.
I have two coins that are slabbed. They'll stay that way. Other than that, i haven't met a coin i haven't wanted to free.