You Don't See These Very Often

Why would the color of a slab of an already respectable company increase it's value?

quote:

---

The NGC black slabs are going for lots of money, regardless of the coin encapsulated inside it.

---

Bingo! Conder101 could give a better history on them, but the black ngc slabs were the very first ones used and extremely rare. So rare, the slab itself commands a premium of at least a thousand bucks, if you can find one. The slab collectors are predicting huge bucks for these in the future, and to find one that has a decent coin in it is a real coupe.

My first, and unless I find another, last time I try and buy the slab, not the coin.

quote:

---

well I stand corrected on this one, the black slab would have been my last guess

---

Without learning about their significance over the last year or so, I wouldn't have known much about them either. Part of the reason for this post was to bring about an awareness of them to the community, and the inherent value that they carry. Regardless of the ebbs and flows of the overall coin market, these black ngc slabs will do nothing but continue to rise in value. An excellent investment oppurtunity, and I rarely say that with respect to collecting.

graceoutcast, I don't know the population, but I do know that ngc only used it for Sept and possibly part of Oct, 1987. One month.

hadleydog said,"Regardless of the ebbs and flows of the overall coin market, these black ngc slabs will do nothing but continue to rise in value."
This is only possible because of what Barnum said! Which was, 'there is a sucker born every minute'. And this sure seems to prove him right.

Very interesting! A premium of $1250 for the slab alone. That seems a bit steep and I wonder how much more it could rise. It makes me fear an outbreak of counterfeit slabs. The holder and insert seem rather crude compared to recent emissions so forgers would likely target this product. It is worth the effort for the Chinese and even some of the US based forgers. I don't see much in the way of detail that could be used to ID the real thing.

I agree that market drives the price, but I hesitate to call it a "numismatic" value. It is clearly a collectables issue. I will have to watch for these. But I would be very suspicious of a "bargain" version found anywhere.

I have to say I'm a bit surprised. That is only the tenth sale of a black NGC that I know of since 1998, and the third this year! (The ten sales only represent 7 coins though. One piece has sold three times. It won't sell again because I own it. I also know of two more coins, but they have not sold in the past nine years. There have also been two sales of broken empty holders. The empty holders tend to bring around $50 - $60.)

I am also a bit surprised at the price. The guy got off cheap. Hadley mentioned the Cincinnati that sold in March for a $3000+ premium for the holder. The other piece that sold earlier was an 1881-O dollar that sold in late Jan early Feb and it also sold for a $3100 premium for the holder. (I know one collector of slabs who had a standing offer of a $1000 premium over the coin value for a black NGC holder before the first sale this year. His comment after the first two sales was that he was going to have to up his standing offer.)

These were only used for about the first month of NGC's operation and estimates are they produced in the neighborhood of 20,000 of these slabs. They were not popular. So when the white slabs came out, a lot of them were reholdered. Then add to that 20 years of crackouts, and resubmissions because of the "Early slabs are good upgrade candidates" mindset and the toll on these has been huge. Many dealers and collectors have never seen or even heard of the black NGC's. Guesses are that there are somewhere between 40 and 400 of these slabs still in existance. (Interestingly the next two NGC varieties are even rarer than the black NGC, but they are not visually arresting like the black one is so very few people know about them and they can be quietly picked up on the rare occasions when they appear.)

I wonder who bought that Norfolk? I know of one collector who is trying to put together a set of all the NGC varieties all with commemorative halves in them. Last I knew he still needed a black NGC.