3rd party Slabs. Keep them or crack em open ?

Recently I've bought a few more expensive coins that have come in slabs. Normally I don't like them as it stops me putting them
Into quadrum capsules like the rest of that country. But, it does feel like a shame to bust them out of these holders. I know some people do open them up so I would love to hear people's reasons for and against

Mark.

 

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Who slabbed them, i.e., what TPG?

 

I may add that some slabs may be rare. Depending on the TPG . I was never a fan of slabbed coins ,however I have found gold in some of the older early 80's slabbed coins.
One must know if it's better to leave it alone or crack it out.
Research will be you best friend here, ebay, the Internet is where I would start.

 

I'm not a big fan of changing holders until the time comes to sell and a change will increase the value or ease of selling the coin. There are always risk involved with changing holders.

 

The most-specific appropriate advice needs to await your identification of the originator of the slabs. The "reputable" TPG slabs make a strong argument for retention; the "third world" slabs do not and indeed cause concern whether you got the coin you think you did or not.

That said, rarity/grade/authentication are not always the reasons why a coin appears in a slab. Ego can be involved, so even a PCGS/NGC/ANACS/ICG slab might by consensus not be warranted.

 

The coins I am talking about are all graded by NGC or PCGS no rare holders by what I know of them. I do understand the reason of slabbing them as I will be sending my Gold Coast ackey in to be slabbed. Uniformity is the main reason I want to remove them. I suppose it's a little silly to do so when they're in probably the best holders gig can get. These are the only slabbed coins I have obviously the end two aren't all that but I won't bother to break them out given there not expensive coins anyway.


This slab has a mechanical error which I assume isn't too common hehe

This is how my British West Indian stuff is currently kept. I've just removed my old Bahamas penny from one to sell on. Which in turn has stoked the fire !

 

I'm getting to a point where money just doesn't grow on trees. I can't spend money to send my coins to one service,only to be disappointed in the grade and then send it to someone else, "hoping" to get a better grade. What if you don't like the second grade, send it to a third service ?

 

That isn't what I'm talking about LOL I don't buy into this whole grading lark generally although I can appreciate why it's become what it has. On the whole we Brits like our coins raw. I wouldn't be sending them for a regrade they would go into a quadrum capsule like the last picture and stay with my West Indian coins as opposed to being seperated from it as all the slabs are together.

 

It's your collection, and you can do what you wish. There are plenty of collectors on our side of the pond who do not like their coins slabbed by any method.

Chris

 

Do you have a picture of the back of the one in the top left corner? That is new to me. The rest are all common slabs

 

I'll take one for you it's just a datestamp slab. I fancied one for the longest reign I think they're quite nice. You can buy them
They're called everslab.

 

If you want uniformity of slabs, reholdering fees are very modest in comparison to the value of expensive coins. You would wind-up with two types of holders though, NGC and PCGS.

Leaving them in a slab protects them quite well; however, slabs aren't guaranteed to be gas- and liquid-proof. A slabbed coin will always be considered authentic and the grade to be correct by the grading service, or they pay the difference. Yeah, there can be grade-flation that may lower the perceived value of the grade on the slab, but there will always be a floor. However, the coin itself rather than the slab may be what the market values.

More than one coin has been damaged in the removal process. If you're going to do it, get some cheap slabs for practice first. Some of the techniques on the net are dangerous to coins (and some to collectors as well).

If you remove it and then it's sent in for grading later, bad things can happen. It can come back in a slab with a lower grade or worse, in a bag, labeled counterfeit, damaged, etc. Not only can grading standards change over time, new types of counterfeits are uncovered and new means of detecting counterfeits and damage are being developed.

You said the coins are expensive, which I assume to mean their value is high compared to your overall wealth. How much of a gambler are you?

Cal

 

@Conder101: http://datestampcoins.co.uk/

 

About the only coin I would keep in the slab is the Jamaican penny, the rest of them have no extra value slabbed IMHO.

BTW would like to see front and back images of the Anguilla dollars - those have cool factor.

 

By expensive I mean around £200 so 10% of my monthly income. So yeah I guess I've yet to spend over £700 on a coin.

Probably for the best to remain slabbed then I never considered the fact they could change the grade. I suppose re-sale ability of staying the slab is a good idea. I don't intend on selling them but then you never know what the future holds and I would like to think I have at least another 50 years ahead of me.

 

Perhaps if you used http://www.air-tites.com/Coin_World_Coin_Slabs.htm#.V4u5WrgrLIU instead of the quadrum capsules they would be similar enough to the graded coins it wouldn't bother you. All of us collectors have some degree of OCD.

 

I would never crack open a PCGS, NGC, or ANACS slab, because of their guarantee of authenticity. A wise person told me that if I want to complete my Mercury Dime collection with the missing 1916D I should by a certified one, leave it in the holder and put a 1916 P dime in the slot. The 16D is a common counterfeit coin, the certification should take away that worry. If you sell the set, tell the person what you did and let them decide if they want to crack open the certified one or keep it the way you did it.

I'm liquidating a coin "accumulation" a fellow Vietnam Vet, who just passed away, had. So far I've found two Morgan Dollars and one $5 Indian gold that are counterfeit, He bought them raw and didn't know what to look for. I'm lucky a local jewelry/coin store has a metal analyzer and I can check coins I feel aren't legit.

 

IMO, you'd be a foll to crack out the coins since you'd be giving up the authenticity guarantee.

But then, it may not matter to you. Until you decide to sell that is.

 

TPG services are in the market to make money. They'll put fancy labels on their slabs, they'll make outrageous claims, such as First Day Certification, (I just don't see how that could be done except maybe if the mint issues a new coin at a show and a certification service is there and you get [for mucho dollars] one day certification.)They'll list ridiculously high prices for modern bullion coins because of low population numbers. The coins have low population numbers, because they aren't worth getting graded.

If you want a good laugh go to PCGS or NGC price guides and look up the price listed of an early bullion ASE in MS70; the price is in the thousands for a bullion coin!

Again, I state the best use of TPG services is that they guarantee a coin is real and will pay you what a genuine coin would cost if they are wrong. On the other hand, they are saying a coin has details more and more to cover themselves. A friend submitted several toned coins tha cme from the same bank roll. Some came back as real toning and some came back as artificial toning. All from the same bank roll.

There are some very well known coin dealers that will crack open and submit the same coin over and over again, because the difference in price between one grade on a rare coin can be thousands of dollars. That's why I question some population reports on key coins.