Well over the past while I have been thinking about submitting some coins to NGC. My collection has been growing and I buy the nicest stuff I can afford. My type set looks great and my mint state peace dollars are about done, dang that 34-s. I have been a member here for a couple of years and have always read the post about storage and taking care of your coins. I have most coins in Dansco with a slip case and have bought an Intercept sheild album. I also place my high end albums in large zip locks than place them in to a rubbermaid storage container with silica gel. I haven't had a bad problem of coins toning other than a couple of dimes. My mid grade and low end is in 2x2 flips in blue whitman cases in storage. I have been thinking about slabbing my higher end stuff just to protect my purchase for when the wife has to sell them, several years from now I'm only 38. I also would like to do the registry thing with the peace dollars, I'm doing the Ikes and am loving it. Ok this week I have been filling out a spreadsheet for inventory. I have a lot of money tied up in this hobby, I was surprised. I also read the article on coin storage on page 89 of the current Numismatist and am thinking about long term storage and collection protection. It is easier to get money out of slabbed coins now days. I have always loved my dansco albums and the presentation factor and have bought several coins in slabs and cracked them out. So I want opinions on what you guys think, to slab or not to slab? Is it natural progression to be an album lover than want to switch to slabs? Why can't someone like dansco come up with a nice way to present slabs?
Eagle sells slab albums. I have yet to buy any, but I've been thinking about it. They're relatively expensive. Anybody have any or used 'em in the past?
In answering I want to first say that slabbing is not the Be all, End all solution. Slabs are for the most part not airtite. Toning and corrosion can still take place. Crappy stuff also ends up in slabs. Having said that- most of my collection is in sets, some complete and some needing completion. I am a set building nut. And there is enjoyment to be gained from that. I can say the two tougher ones are the Barber dimes and Barber halves. Neither set is done. And I skipped over the Barber quarters. But the slabs are catching up. I started buying slabs just to study them. Just to own one like a conversation piece. It progressed from there to the various different flavors: OGH, old ANACS small white, ANACS blue, NGC fatties, so on and so forth. But I find slabs can contain some second rate coins too. I have a PCGS MS64 1881-S Morgan that is very nice. Nice cheek without a lot of hits. But the darn thing has fingerprints on it. So ok I could have returned it. But the strike is so clean I would be hard pressed to find another that nice. Thoughts of cracking it out for a dip are tempting. I would then stick the coin where? In a Dansco of course! Some collectors I talk with only own slabs. Many set builders say that if they were to start all over from scratch they would only buy graded and slabbed coins. So yes; I think it's a natural progression. But the way I am doing it is to get already slabbed coins and not submit my own. I always read the "Box of twenty" threads. And yup if I could sell all the whole shebang for what I have into these sets, I would do a PCGS box of 20 and a NGC box of 20. In fact I already started them. Then there is the thought of just doing one box of 20 PCGS gold US coins. That would be a real space saver and simple to store. Don't ask me why but now I am doing a Canadian large cent set and another set of 1922 to 2010 Canadian nickels. But if I could find a way to peddle off everything close to retail without paying a middleman I would definitely start over with just slabbed graded coins.
Victor, I agree if I were to start over I think I would buy just slabbed coins and that is basically what I buy now except from my local shop where they don't have a lot of slabbed coins. I feel a lot of my coins are on the high end of their respected grades so I'm not worried about sending those ones in. The ones on the lower end of the grade or the ones like a 1922 peace dollar in 65 I don't feel their is any advantage to send them in. I would take good photos of them and try to sell them raw and than turn around and buy slabbed ones. I just am thinking that I will miss the classic look of opening up my dansco and looking at the set in that manner.
My opinion is I collect coins, not plastic. So I have no slabbed coins, don't want any, can't use any, never will send a coin for that. When I do purchase a slabbed coin, I break out the coin and throw away the plastic.
I don't think it's a progression toward slabs. If I did that it would severely limit my collecting abilities. I mean, who can afford to assemble a complete set of slabbed large cents or seated dimes? Most of my coins are raw for that very reason. A completed set of nice circulated coins is nicer than an incomplete set of graded coins that would require hitting a mega lottery to complete. At least to me. So, slab or buy slabs for the coins you like that just happen to be slabbed, and go from there. Guy~
i agree ... i starting collecting coins in 1968 ... and slabs leave me cold nothing beats the look of a collection in an album
The grass is always greener.... My advice, keep your collection raw (unless you plan on selling)....Mike
yep, just seeing what opinion others have to see if I'm missing something. Trying to make an educated decision.
With raw coins, ignorance is bliss. I mean that if I open a book of raw coins I could imagine a coin to be whatever grade I wanted it to be. I could say to myself "that coin is a 65 all day" and close the book and go about my business. But if I graded the coins I would be dissapointed to see that same coin in a 63 holder. When I send a group of coins to be certified I write down what I think they will grade and I am never 100% right. Sometimes the ones I thought were great come back low and there is usually a silver lining and I get one to be a point highter than I thought. I collect certified coins mainly because I don't want to lie to myself about the technical grade. Its about asking yourself if you have the stones to find out how well you did collecting your sets or not. I suppose the owner of any coin can decide for himself if a purchase was worth it or not but the grading services help us all sing off the same sheet of music. Matt
There are a lot of variables involved. If you want to display them or just enjoy looking at them, keeping them in Danscos makes sense. Depending on how much money you have invested, at some point you have to consider storing them offsite in a safe deposit box. These stink because you don't get to see and enjoy your coins as often but you will sleep a lot more soundly. Slabs will not preserve your coins any better than some non-slab options. Since you already have them raw, there are only two good reasons to get them slabbed. First, to see just what you have -- the certification will either reinforce what you already suspect or (hopefully not) surprise you that you don't quite have what you thought. For instance, when I first had some of my raw coins certified by PCGS, I found some of my MS63's were AU58' s. Second, if you are preparing to sell, then slabbing will likely make the coins more marketable. Good luck in the decision.:smile:mouth::smile
Yes. The set philosophy has to be sacrificed unless you are a millionaire. At this point I am not in the market for a complete slabbed set of anything. It doesn't have to be in a set format at all. How about collecting slabbed and graded key dates? I am not into the registry craze. And I am not done building sets either. My raw Barber half dollar set in a Dansco has 14 coins left to finish it. Unless someone comes along and offers me $1,200 [as is] I intend to keep going with it. That is really my main focus now. But the progression into slabbed has solid reasoning. And I do like to think of it as a natural progression. What am I gonna do build sets the rest of my life? Just as an example, one of the first sets I put together was Mercury dimes minus the 16D and overdates. After that I put together a second and third set of Mercs. Then it was Kennedys. After my first complete set of Kennedys, I put together a second and a third. In fact I have a forth and fifth complete set which both end in 2003. Then it was unc Franklins, then another two sets of circ. Franklins. Just last Saturday I got a nice upgrade 1951-S for the unc set. I think I stole the coin for $12. My point is that a person can go through life building set after set of raw coins. Or even type set after type set. But is that all there is to coin collecting? I respect the opinion of the collector who says he will never own plastic. I am not of that opinion however. My opinion is that after doing set after set of raw- there must be something else. Call it a transition if you will. Disagree? That's fine. I need someone to sell all my raw stuff to. LOL
I prefer slabs but collect both. I to am not a registry nut but I do have them as I like seeing them all together but am not going to go crazy for 1 point higher and spend tons to get there. But it's still nice to have them up there. This is a personal decision though.
The 1949-S PCGS MS65FBL Franklin I have came from a set of 48-59 Franklins in old Wayte-Raymond/American Coin Album holders I got on ebay for under $200 about 6 years ago. The other two 49's came in at 64FBL. The rest of the set is high AU to 64. The person who sold them probably thought he was ripping me off!
