Found this at last weekend's show. Given the price of gold, I did *not* buy it for my slab collection...
I believe I saw the same exact slab at the Central States Show! I saw the panda side facing forward and assumed it was a normal ACG slab with a world coin in it. Knowing the price would be high, I didn't even ask to see it. It's cool to know that this isn't a plain ACG slab.
I did check and the ACG letters are present in the dot pattern bottom right, but fairly faint, as if the mold had been used a lot. There is another one, a 1988P, s/n 431A0020, on eBay - not sold - http://www.ebay.com/itm/132108938030, where the seller says he's owned it for 10 years... And a 3 pack - http://www.ebay.com/itm/262560170456 - 1987P 1/2 ounce 422A0372 1987S 1/2 ounce 162A0411 1987Y 1/2 ounce 172A0520 So I'll hazard a guess that the 1st part is the coin # (e.g. 172) and the s/n range is from 0020 to 0520... Also 2 at HA in 2005 Long Beach (auction #378) 1987P 1 ounce 421A0230 and 421A0107 https://coins.ha.com/itm/china/chin...om-the-dr-kurt-peters-collectio/a/378-12897.s https://coins.ha.com/itm/china/peop...m-the-dr-kurt-peters-collection/a/378-12898.s 1986P 1 ounce 411A0205 https://coins.ha.com/itm/china/worl...-12890.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Stack's Bowers August 2016 Hong Kong auction #61026 1987P no picture of slab https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-56Z3B And 3 at Gorny & Mosch Giessener - didn't bother chasing those down Auction records: https://www.acsearch.info/search.ht...s=1¤cy=usd&thesaurus=1&order=0&company=
Yes, it’s only 1/20 of an ounce. It’s impossible to scan through the PMV, but looking at it under a magnifier I would bet my life. This thing is genuine… I rather like it for the vintage slab aspect… A group of these, a small group came through the shop I work at I was able to grab two before the rest was sent off to the distributor. I got one and my friend got the other, but I think it’s really fun for the vintage slab collection…
I think Burton mentioned this on the CU thread, but here is a thread where Conder mentioned the operation ACG had: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/national-grading-service-slab-acg-type-holder-any-info.269336/ "In the mid 90's ACG WOULD set you up with the equipment and supplies for you to have your own grading service for 25K. (But for that they would design a shell for your service, They weren't ACG shells, or at least they didn't have the ACG initials o the shell.) But around 2002 they came up with a new deal. For just a few hundred they would license you for an encapsulation service. Then for a small fee per coin you could send coins in and they would encapsulate them in ACG shells under your company name at whatever grade you specified. They made it a point to stress that ACG would do NO grading of the coins. Supposedly there were 14 companies that took licenses but I have only traced I believe 4 of them."
I don't get the comment, Jeff... white box is a common practice today. You didn't think that Sears employees were assembling your dishwasher out back during their downtime in the store, did you? They hired somebody to manufacture them with the Kenmore label on them. It's even more so today...
Fair point, of course. But I can't see Sears (or their manufacturer) agreeing to manufacture products with different branding that still have the Kenmore "look and feel", but absolutely no guarantee of quality or fitness-for-purpose.
That's not how white box manufacturing works. You don't own the box, look & feel, anything, just the badge https://www.repairclinic.com/PartDetail/Thermal-Fuse/WP3392519/2986