They are hardly overated. Take some raw coins and try to sell them on the market. The slabs give much better protection than most anything, give a valid grade, and authentication. Almost 70% of the non slabbed coins on the market have problems. Some people have a strong feeling against slabbing, and i won't argue the point with you if you like to hold the coin in your hand. But I'd happily spend the very few dollars to put a coin like that in a graded slab. As for the comment on the strike - that seems to be correct. http://www.coinfacts.com/silver_dol...morgan_dollars/1883o_morgan_silver_dollar.htm I'd still slab it if I had the money. Others most hard plastic holders do the job and I don't think there has been any historic problems with airtights...desertjem is more of an expert on this than I am and would be my goto guy on the subject. Ruben
There are no unknowns about the ring inserts. Coins will tone in Air-Tites, that is a fact. But it has nothing to do with the ring insert. Coins will tone in any holder or slab. That is a fact too. The only thing you can do to stop or even slow down coins from toning is to store them correctly. Example, I have roughly 40 2000 Sackys stored in Air-Tites - with rings, black rings. And they look just the same today as the day I got them from the mint. And mind you now, Sackys are the single most reactive coin the mint makes. Meaning they are made out of the most reactive coinage metal there is. The dang things develop spots and toning just from looking at them ! But mine (well my sons now ) have 0 toning. Of course they are stored correctly. And no, the direct fit type does not screw up the edges.
LT, you can always get the self-slab cases that look similar to regular slabs. I've never used them so I don't know what they cost.
Hmmm, I liked the book "men who stare at goats", maybe my book on toning someday will be titled "Men who Stare at Coins " ! Jim