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Message:: [QUOTE="Vess1, post: 854577, member: 13650"]You can look up slab numbers to verify authenticity on NGC and PCGS. I'm a member (for free) at NGC and can login and look up an NGC serial # any time. It will at least verify that the coin was there. Newer submissions even have photos to go along witht the verification, so you can usually look for identifying marks on the coin in the slab and make sure they match up with the photos NGC has.  I'm not a member at PCGS and haven't looked up any there but if I were concerned, I'd probably ask someone.  After you look at a lot of slabs, you get to know what the fonts should look like, what's bold and what's not. The fake slabs I've seen could fool a casual observer but weren't that good IMO. There's also been many types of slabs over the years as the companies changed them to better security features or just changed the style. Once in a while I'll run across a rarer, short lived NGC slab style that I don't recognize and sometimes I'll look it up just to check it. I doubt most people realize how many different types of slabs the TPGs have went through over the years.   Some of the earliest ones are very crude looking. Quite a few coin shops have created their own slabs now, further confusing people. They try to impersonate the top TPGs. So they're not fake slabs but don't necessarily have a lot of credibility either. Newcomers may not realize the difference until after the purchase. It pays to pay attention.[/QUOTE]