Food for thought... If they can counterfeit the coin, how difficult do you think it is to copy the wrapping.
So if I decide to keep the coin at home I am a collector. If I decide to keep it at the bank, I am not. Good to know. I didn't know the rules. Thanks for clarifying.
Listen, I don't mind, you can store them in the subway system, underground, bus terminal locker or in a public toilet ceiling. The coins that you can access regularly, in your leisure time are still part of your hobby. Your interest in coins and coin activity keeps you a collector, numismatist, coin cleaner, coin statistician, practicing OCD therapy or anything you want to be. The sky is the limit. When you take the coins out of that hobby definition and keep them in a bank, in my opinion, they are no longer in the loop of your regular hobby habits. Removed, forgotten, away for safe keeping and again, in my opinion, more like an investment or storage of capital. I didn't say you don't have other coins to play with at home. hobby 1 an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure Now, if at the bank, they let you come in at your leisure and enjoy your collection, evenings and weekends, that would make it an exception. Maybe you even have your own key.
Personally I like slabs because it takes 90% of the unpleasantness out of dealing in buying and selling. No need to argue coin grade it creates a take it or leave it situation. Just like buying a Saturn.
Oh, people will ALWAYS argue the grade, despite the holder. Every dealer I take a slabbed coin to at a show suddenly gets "fussy" about a NGC or PCGS coin that I'm trying to sell. Yet their slabbed coins are always, "choice for the grade."
Keeping expensive coins in a safe deposit box is common sense. Doesn't mean they're inaccessible or forgotten but they're still part of the collection. Let me know if I got that wrong...
No need for anyone to get fussy. The cool thing about hobbies is that you can do them how ever you want. My wife thinks we're all just dorks; safety deposit boxes, slabs, raws,... it doesn't matter, LOL.
Not sure if I'm allowed to have an opinion anymore ...? I'll just go with zesty's wife on this one, we can come across as dorks.
Sure you can have a different view on this, no problem. Maybe it's really more like an investment if coins are at the bank. Still, you can have low-grade coins, tokens or even counterfeits as placeholders in your collection so you won't forget about them ;-)
And there is always the "if you don't hold it, you don't own it." Do you really want the bank to stand between you and your investments?
I might be in the minority based on the responses. I like having my coins in a slab. It allows me to view the coin at any time without fear of damage. I also make a point to buy one or two raw in the series I collect, so if I get the urge to feel a coin in my cotton gloved hand, I'll just pick up one of those. Storing coins in NGC storage boxes is also easy.
Assurance of authenticity is likely to become less of an issue as the counterfeiters get better at faking slabs. At that point, one will have to know the diagnostics for the slab as well as for the coin. I'd be curious how many different types of slabs there actually are. We're probably getting to the point where we need a Red Book for "United States Slabs". As for me, if I am confident that a coin is real, that's good enough. Someone once said that if you can't tell the difference between a real coin and a fake, then the fake is as good as real. I study the coins very carefully and pay attention to die markers. If a fake is good enough to have the correct die markers, I (and I'd bet a lot of others) I would likely accept it as real. In this case, ignorance is really is bliss.
I will purchase my coins raw and in person. I get them circulated (<AU50) because I like the history behind them. That having been said, for my favorites like the 1934 cent and 1943-S steel cent, I'd like to have one slabbed high grade example just to have. Otherwise I dont buy slabbed coins.
In my country, there are no grading companies. I must buy everything in RAW. But I never saw a US coin in high grade. Everything is less grade. Advantage of this it's a cheap hobby, there are very few of US coin collectors. So I can buy $90 Mercury dime for $2.
Do you really want a slab to come between you and your coin? Funny you should say that.... I'm currently at around 155 companies and over 360 production varieties. Include the Samples, novelties, Advertising, and Presentation slabs and you are probably pushing around 500 varieties.
