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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cwtokenman, post: 315153, member: 2100&quot;]I did not see an answer that seemed to closely fit my opinion, so I voted that I am as good or better than, but that would be my opinion in regard to exonumia only, Civil War tokens in particular.&nbsp; My expressed opinion is based solely upon tpg slabs that I have seen for cwts.&nbsp; While slabbing has very recently branched into other areas of exonumia, I typically skip over the slabs, so I can not comment on their quality.&nbsp; I would estimate the cwt slabs to be about 95+% NGC with a random ANACS or SEGS or other example. Since slabbing of exonumia is a relatively recent occurence, I know I have been studying cwts far, far longer (bought my first cwt back around 1965)&nbsp; than any of the grading companies have been dealing with them. Also, due to the relatively low numbers of cwt slabs (22 current NGC cwt slabs in the cwt section of ebay at the writing of this post), I would dare to match the quantity of cwts that I have examined up against those of any professional grader. IMO, it is very possible that I own more cwts than a typical tpg grader has even looked at. </p><p><br /></p><p>For regular coinage though, you would admittedly find me back at a level not far above beginner, as I have not been significantly involved with that area for many years. From reading some of the posts, professional graders must display a much higher level of expertise with regular coinage than has been my experience with exonumia. On the topic of tpg errors, that is one of my big beefs concerning the tpgs, having seen ebay offerings on some days with double digit error percentage rates, and that just includes errors of identification and copying of the merchant&#039;s name to the label. Neither is there a shortage of grade assignments with which I also disagree, but that may come from their lack of experience with the miriade of diesinkers, metals, striking methods and such. There is also the inherent disadvantage of few examples for reference/comparison, since about 70% of the 11,000+ varieties have populations of 20 or less, and a large percentage of those are at a pop of 10 or less. Numismatic publications have printed only a few stories regarding multiple submissions (and usually small sample quantities), but none that I have read presented the tpgs in a light of consistency.</p><p><br /></p><p>As far as collectors demanding slabs - perhaps with regular coinage, I really don&#039;t know. But I feel exonumia collectors simply don&#039;t have much need for slabs. I can expound on that if anyone is interested in my reasons for stating such. Some token societies, with the support of their membership, have created websites for the sole purpose of urging tpgs to &quot;leave their facet of the hobby alone&quot;.&nbsp; I wish I had saved some completed ebay auctions when cwt slabs first appeared, in order to be able to provide visible proof, but some long time posters to the ebay C&amp;PM discussion board may recall when I brought to their attention a number of completed auctions for various NGC MS graded Civil War tokens that could not even attract the $ .01 opening bid. That doesn&#039;t sound like much demand to me. I tend to agree with Drusus in a general sense, in that it seems submissions for slabbing are all too often made with the primary goal of increasing profits. 19 of the above mentioned 22 cwt slabs on ebay are for sale by one of three sellers, one who typically has well over half of the cwt slabs.</p><p><br /></p><p>Granted, my opinions are generated from a small, and rather obscure segment of the hobby, but the level of quality I have seen is no where near one that I would consider &quot;professional&quot;. Personally, I would be embarassed if I operated at that level. In addition to the thousands of cwts in my personal collection, I have examined and identified thousands more that I did not purchase, and hundreds of others for friends as well as a few regular (ebay) cwt sellers - all at no charge, just because I love to do it. While grading is largely subjective and inherently open to a difference of opinion, identification is not. I would put my record of identification up against any tpg any day of the week. I can point to some tpg identifications that, for every example that I have seen thus far, have been in error. And I believe they will continue to make those same errors because they do not know what they are doing wrong. The &quot;average&quot; cwt collector would likely know these sorts of things, a &quot;professional&quot; most certainly should.</p><p><br /></p><p>I am sure that some will dispute what I have written, or believe that I am exaggerating, and if you do, I will be more than happy to start providing examples to demonstrate what I have written is true. If as a collector, your experience has been better than mine, I&#039;m glad for you.&nbsp; I have a pretty good idea why sellers/dealers like tpgs. While I am not fond of tpgs, I am not totally against them either, as I believe they do provide a valuable authentication service. That is not a service needed much with cwts, and the Civil War Token Society provides that service either free or for a couple of bucks&nbsp; (and I would value their opinion more anyway).[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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