This Draped Bust half is CAC but doesn't have a sticker. I had no idea about that until I registered in the Registry and it came up as a CAC coin. Sure enough, it's in the CAC database.
I have quite a few of them, although I don't go out of my way to buy them, and I am anything but a CAC cheerleader. Here are a few: Eagleeye liked this one too.
The real impetus for CAC was the loose grading on gold coins, esp. Saints, where you had coins clearly overgraded by 1-2 grades. You needed something to identify the "C" coins from the "B" (OK for the grade) and "A" coins (strong for the grade). I think the fear is that now ANY coin that doesn't sticker is a "C" coin but that isn't necessarily so.
Sometimes CAC is a wrong. I have a file full of their goofs. Some people treat Albanese like he's the "Pope of numismatics," infaulable. He isn't. He's an expert, but he's also human. There are also matters of opinion. He also does not apply all of the stickers, but the CAC fans will never admit that.
Same, although I only have two of them. I don't care whose slab it's in or what sticker is on it, I only look at the coin. This one I got because I needed the Type 2 reverse, and because it's likely the coin mentioned by McCloskey in his 1980 Coin World article where he discovered that there were two obverse and reverse hub types - something I've focused on. I thought it would be awesome to have one of his discovery coins. This one I purchased on Heritage to have a gem example of the 1900-S Type 1 reverse anomaly. The funny thing is, a 1900-S in NGC MS65, no CAC, sold that very same day on GC for 15% more than this one. So much for the PCGS + CAC premium! To me it's all marketing BS.
