Could the TPG's have all the nice coins?

Most collections were put together way before NGC or PCGS even existed. I talk coins in general here, not US only. Plastic craze is viral within the US, not so much for the rest of the world. Some on the greatest collections are located in museums around the world, not slabbed.

TPG's are good to tell you if a coin's genuine or not and put a grade on it to make it easier to sell. Museums don't care if a coin is a 65 or 66, that's just a trick to sell coins. Museums are about history, not profit, thus would never submit coins.

Besides museums...

Don't forget, people collect coins for thousands of years, so yeah people manage to come by these high quality coins, unslabbed, without people in the business. Coin collecting is not always a business.

There was a world of raw collections before plastic, and there will be one after it.

Well I could be wrong but that's my opinion.

 

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The better question is why wouldn't you?

 

Some people like slabbed coins...and some people don't. I don't see a problem either way.

 

I don't have a problem either way what people prefer either, Camaro. I was just trying to make a point.

 

Yet, now and again, a coin surfaces from "the wild"... and everyone wonders where the heck THAT was hiding...

My 1924 Canadian cent, is a perfect example. It was tucked away in an old collection in Nova Scotia for decades, in an envelope. A dealer, whom is also a friend that knows I collect higher end small cents, bought the collection. He sent it to PCGS, and now, it is the only 1924 Canadian cent with a MS-66 grade, and in my collection.

http://www.cointalk.com/threads/post-your-new-canadian-acquisitions.222857/page-47

Of course, this is the exception, not the norm. Most better and rarer coins have pedigrees, sometimes several, attached to them.

 

I have cracked dozens of graded coins just in the past few months. I prefer viewing them my Dansco albums. I don't plan on selling these coins so I don't see a downside. I hunt for the most beautiful washingtons/mercs I can find/afford and if they happen to be in a holder they get cracked. I have yet to damage a coin (I use a dremel on the edge of the holder) and some of these are $200-$400 coins.

 

It makes sense...in today's world where a lot of the big coin auctions have online bidding, a slab makes it safer for the bidder. A great example is that gold they found buried in the Sierra Nevada's recently. The first thing they did was send it to PCGS for grading and then they are going to sell it. You realize the better prices that way.

 

Then, we recently learn about the Saddle Ridge Hoard... what a find to cause a shake-up in the PCGS population reports!!

 

I'll agree that most of the high quality classic coins are accounted for. But for moderns, I'd bet there are enough high quality (top pop) coins sitting in rolls, mint sets & proof sets to drastically change the pop reports. My own hoard alone of 68's, 69's & 70's would move the numbers.

 

That's probably more true than not. Although I do have many business strikes that I believe are 68's - they're not common by any means, I find no more than 1 or 2 every 3 to 5 rolls. Then, I have not checked non satin mints sets, are they full of 68's and some 69's, like the satins were?

 

Do the cracked slabs go in the garbage or recycling. Maybe the TPG's should provide some relief for the landfills?

... or thousands of raw coins in MS from a safety deposit box.

http://www.cointalk.com/threads/omaha-bank-hoard.238394/

 

You may be correct, I haven't sent any off to be graded - just putting them in Ait-Tites for now.

As far as loosing the standards, aren't the standards still loose or have they tightened? At the start of the satin program, they were much higher quality - toward end, terrible quality, so probably the same for non satin sets starting in 2011.

 

Sure, they've loosened the standards, the Red Book calls it "gradeflation". I've noticed it most with the next generation of PCGS slabs after the green label – compared to today’s slabs, you can often ad a grade to the green label. The last time I read the PCGS standards they said a PR69 should only have flaws visible at 5x magnification, but most 69's I see have flaws visible with the naked eye.

I’ve also noticed some crazy high grades on hoards. I bought a 1956 Omaha Hoard MS65 Franklin and returned it, as I have MS63’s that look better. It will be interesting to see what the Saddle Ridge Hoard actually looks like compared to previous top pops.

I guess it increases their profit by satisfying more customers, especially the big sellers, with higher grades on their slabs, although, IMO, it lessens their credibility. Even if the collector doesn't follow the rule, "Buy the coin, not the slab", the higher graded coins are worth less than they would be if standards were stricter, because there's more high grades out there.