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Message:: [QUOTE="kanga, post: 634181, member: 9270"]For me slabs perform several functions:1. Most importantly, they authenticate coins.2. Within a particular TPG's guidelines, they pronounce coins as "original" (unaltered and uncleaned).3. They give a starting point for grading. You may not agree with their assigned grade, but you can be confident it's close. For this warm fuzzy feeling I AM willing to pay a bit extra. EXAMPLE: I wanted an early US coin just to say I had one from the 1790's and to add to my type set.To that end I found that the least expensive example would be a 1798 Cent, Second Hair.I bought one raw. It had a REALLY interesting and massive die crack.The condition of the sale was that the coin would slab or I could return it for a full refund (very reputable dealer so no worries about getting the refund).It didn't slab (NGC) because the surface had a coating that prevented it from being fully evaluated.Took everything back to him and, with some additional money, I got an already slabbed example of the same coin.If I had bought the slabbed coin in the first place it would have saved me the annoyance (took 3+ months) and expense (submission fee).[/QUOTE]