I fancy myself an early copper collector. Many of my coins are slabbed, but only because I bought them that way. I buy the coin not the holder. Notwithstanding the above, for fun I took a look at the PCGS and NGC registry sets for large and half cents. It's shocking how few sets there are - only 27 large cent sets for the full basic set, and far less than that for half cents. Having noodled the issue, I have two thoughts: 1) Most early copper collectors prefer eac grading, and thus shun slabs, and by extension shun registry sets 2) The "c*ck measurers" that go around buying MS70 recent mint offerings to climb registry set rankings are probably afraid to venture into early copper since high grades are so tough. So, what do people think?
As a EAC member and long time copper collector my guess is that early copper collectors simple prefer raw coins.
I would agree. Most who love early cents have the same love for slabs as ancient collectors, that is none. If I were still collecting US coins I would be a large and half cent collector, maybe colonials.
And the club has collection lists which rank the collections, and more! They are just not public lists.
I would agree with all of the above. Early US copper is a world all its own and most of the collectors are much more advanced than the stage of the silly registry competitions. Not to mention that you would need to be pretty loaded to compete at all.
I prefer my early copper raw, although I have nothing against certified coins in general. Just something about it, I guess. Still, hard to believe that there are so few registry sets for those types.
I like registry sets so all of my early copper is slabbed. But that makes it difficult to find some coins. If you go to a show visit some EAC dealers. Here's a few dealers I can remember right off the top of my head: -- Chris McCawley -- Butternut -- Tom Reynolds Mostly raw coins. Chris and I have an agreement. I buy one of his raw coins and if it doesn't slab as original I get my money back. I'm 2 for 4.
If two of four did not slab as original that supports the case for slabbing...pretty high percentage...and, probably, a healthy potential loss somewhere up the line..
Does it? If most collectors of these are in or support EAC grading standards, what does it matter what a TPG say about the matter? Its the same in ancients. Most of us truly, truly do not care what the slab pimps say about our coins and crack them out if we happen to buy one in a coffin. Slabs for ancients is mainly high grade, horribly common coins giving comfort to US collectors to own an ancient. So, if the target market does not care what the TPG says, (I know its hard for some to understand how we do not pray at the alter of PCGS and NGC), then what "support" does this give for TPG opinions? Like it or not, the entire coin collecting world will not end up slabbed. Some of us holdouts simply refuse to drink the koolaid. We know more about our coins than TPGs ever will.
Knowing EAC dealers as I do, the chances are quite good that Chris was right and the TPG got it wrong. (And there are a lot of copper in TPG slabs that the EACers see as cleaned and recolored. And hence overgraded by EAC standards.)
When I read his post about 2 of 4, it was my impression that 2 of them were fake. Not genuine. I can't speak for @johnrhcfl , but I believe that was the crux of his comment.
