I have been collecting ONLY Silver Eagles for a few years now. In that collection, I have only purchased PCGS 70 First Strike and recently FDOI coins. I only buy one coin of each type. I have the 2008 ASE Reverse Error in PCGS 70 FS and so forth. Lately, there seems to be an enormous amount of labels claiming 1of 1000 or 1 of 500 etc., but they all offer the same coin. Up until this year, I have only purchased the generic Flag Label. I didn't want to be "buying labels" instead of coins. This year however, in the 2017 ASE W and S coins I gave in and bought the Mercanti label in FDOI. Please give a fairly new collector some guidance going forward. I still want to collect one of each offering in PCGS 70 FDOI or FS but the quantity and price of these labels are crazy. I feel like if I don't buy the Mercanti Label, then my collection is limited, BUT IT IS THE SAME COIN AS THE FLAG LABEL and I could really care less about his signature. Some constructive guidance would by much appreciated.
Depends on the coin, I personally only pay for labels for coins when the coin in question is prone to counterfeits(trade dollars for example) or it's just a special coin issue.
The only time I pay up for a label is if it has a famous numismatist's name on it. If it's not a pedigree, it's just a sticker with a grade.
Buy the coin, not the label. The coin is real. The label is printed paper. Where's the real value? Or what is being hyped?
The coins define the quality . . . the labels define the trend. I'll buy a nice coin over a pet rock any day.
It seems that @Vootsaker has already wasted some of his money buying labels that have no real numismatic value. Let's suppose that he cracked all of those coins out of their slabs. How would he prove that they were a "First Strike" or "First Day of Issue"? The OP might as well buy all of his "limited edition" coins from Coin Vault. Chris PS. Your poll is inaccurate. You don't have to buy the "cheapest label" to have an accurate appraisal of a coin.
As we all know, "First Strike" is an outright lie, with no way to prove. It just means that they received the coin within the first 30 days after release.
Nothing special here, regular old label. These are harder to find than all the other gimmick labels. Date, grade and variety is all you need. With that being said, I have FS labeled coins but I don't chase 'em.
These labels are the numismatic equivalent of Beanie Babies. "First Strike" is an out-and-out lie - in most cases, by the time the coins are released the entire production run has been struck. "FDOI" is a technical truth, but I'm at a loss to understand how that imparts added value. They aren't stamps. They are lumps of silver whose additional value is formed by a thick layer of hype slathered onto them. For many of them, 70's outnumber all other grades combined since they are carefully produced with that as the goal. They are the cash cow of the Mint and the TPG's, nothing else.
Actually I don't believe the mint makes anything on the special labels, it is strictly a TPG cash cow. The Mint's cash cow is all the special sets, finishes etc.
There are more different labels available on 2017 silver eagles slabbed by PCGS than there are years the mint has been making silver eagles, and it's only May.
NGC as well. Every bulk submitter seems to want their own special label or colored holder now a days.
