Hello guys, I am new here. I purchased this gold eagle a few months ago and I am wondering if these slabs are common. Can anyone tell me more about this company and why I never see this old slab, other than on www.sampleslabs.com? When I do buy slabbed coins, I usually buy them in NGC slabs and sometimes PCGS, but this one was too beautiful to ignore! Plus, I bought it for almost nothing over spot!
The info on the Sample Slabs site explains most of it. The reason you don't see many of them is because they are over 20 years old and those slabs were only used for a short time. Add to that that PCI does not enjoy the best reputation when it comes to grading and you have another reason - many of them have been cracked out and put in other slabs.
Yep, that slab is about 24 years old and the company stopped using that general style slab in 1991 when they bought out the holders and supplies of the HALLMARK grading service and started producing the small rectangular slabs with the clipped corners that most people are familiar with. As with most obsolete slabs most of the coins have been cracked out and resubmitted elsewhere. So these obsolete slabs are seldom seen.
