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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;gmarguli, post: 120345, member: 246&quot;]It’s a mixture of ease and insurance. I will not keep a coin like this in a flip. I’d need to get a holder for it and given it’s shape, I’d probably want to do a custom one from Capital. That’d cost around $25, so a slab is the same price.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>True, but how many coins have been ruined because they were kept in cabinets and slid back and forth creating cabinet friction (wear) and lots of hairlines? And while the toning is nice now, leave it in the same environment that caused the toning for another hundred years and we’d be talking about how it was once probably a nice looking coin, but the toning is now too dark and impairs the luster.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>You don’t give the people that work at the grading companies enough credit. Many were full time dealers before working for the grading companies. They now examine around 1,000 coins a day and they’ve probably seen more examples of these coins than most people. Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many of them. They are very good at what they do.</p><p><br /></p><p>And while I trust myself when buying these coins raw, it is still nice to have a second opinion. They’ve caught some SUPERB repair work that went unnoticed by several major dealers. They’ve also caught counterfeits that had lengthy provenances and were sold by highly regarded firms. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I’m not sure how many slabs you see in a year, but I see tens of thousands. I spent probably $50,000+ last year on slabbing fees alone. I see a LOT of slabbed coins. While they do make mistakes, overall they are pretty good. Sure, I’ve had them screw up things like the spelling of countries or listing the wrong country on the insert and getting the PF/MS wrong. However, given the number of coins they grade, mistakes are going to happen, but they really don’t happen that often. And it’s not like I haven’t seen the same type of mistakes from well respected dealers. </p><p><br /></p><p>As for the grading, all you can ask for is consistency. They can be off by a full grade according to your standards, but as long as they are consistently off by that same full grade, it’s fine by me.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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