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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cwtokenman, post: 171921, member: 2100&quot;]In my areas of collecting (and even the hobby as a whole), I feel slabs have been very detrimental. Exonumia has a miniscule, almost non-existant counterfeiting problem. Grading is not much of an issue and most exonumia collectors and the vast majority (if not all) of price lists do not even use the Sheldon scale, values typically change only in small amounts from grade to grade (as an example, the majority of cwts in Unc are valued at about 2x that of one in F). Cleaning is a minor, if any factor at all. Many tokens with holes or other obvious damage are still often sought after.</p><p><br /></p><p>When slabbing first appeared in exonumia, the reception was so cold that I saw quite a few MS graded Civil War tokens unable to even attract a $.01 opening bid on ebay. Unfortunately, that has now reversed for reasons I can not fathom, and slabs now often bring 5 to 10X catalog. And even the slab enthusiasts I know feel that the tpgs do a rather poor job of exonumia grade assignment. I won&#039;t even go into their numerous identification screw-ups and inability/unwillingness to use hobby standard identification numbering systems. </p><p><br /></p><p>When tpgs initially appeared, I held high hopes for them and thought they were the answer to many problems. Sadly, it took little time to realize that they were not going to rise to my expectations, and IMO now seem to be firmly anchored in the position of primarily being a tool used to extract as much $$$ from collector&#039;s wallets as possible.</p><p><br /></p><p>I still believe slabs have their place, but it is a vastly smaller place than is currently occupied.</p><p><br /></p><p>As far as slabs being protection from fakes - if they can make a good counterfeit of a coin, making a fake slab should be relative child&#039;s play IMO. If fake slabs are not already infiltrating the marketplace, I would expect just that in the near future! Perhaps someone should get ready to open a slab authenticating business. Maybe I&#039;m alone here, but I always felt it better (if at all feasible) to be able to acquire any necessary knowledge/skills to do things myself rather than hiring it out.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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