I Bought My First Slab . . .

Sounds like a good price. If it was mine I'd crack it out but I'm not a slab guy.
I only see their usefulness in terms of guaranteed authenticity.

Nina, Is that you in the green hair?

If you are happy with the purchase and the price -- that's all that matters.

As for the slab...I have left all of mine alone because I have no reason to do otherwise. I am a magpie of a collector -- I am not trying to fill holes in an album.

So leave it alone until you have a reason to set it free --which I understand requires a hacksaw.

Nina ... follow your heart.

Enjoy that slab for awhile .. decide later if worthy to you of cracking out.

No big deal ... it's a bullion coin but to you a new experience for your collecting passion ... and that IMHO is a very good thing.

Best

David

Nickelsearcher, Buddy, I think you guys have the best idea: wait til the novelty of having one wears off and then see how I feel. Thanks I'm leaning toward cracking it because it looks like it's already damaged, but it is kind of awesome to me that I have one.

Upstate--ahahahaha I WISH!! That's my favourite videogame character, Terra Branford from Final Fantasy. She was originally from a 2D game, but is widely considered one of the most popular videogame RPG characters of all time and was brought back for a game called Final Fantasy: Dissidia. I've never played Dissidia (my opinion of the FF franchise is that it went way downhill between VI--Terra's game--and VII--the first one in 3D), but the art for it is very beautiful. (Complete sidenote: Although Miss Liberty on the IHC looks nothing like Terra, I imagine that they are quite alike in character. Terra fights not for love, gain, or vengeance but because sometimes freedom demands it.)

I am a slab collector and an album collector. I collect series in raw form and simultaneously collect the series in slabs. I often buy cheap slabs to cut open and fill out my raw collections.

Whether it be in a 2X2 , an Airtite or a flip, you are going to want to store in something. It might as well be a slab. And an ANACS slab is not the worst slab to keep it in. My advice ......... keep it in the ANACS slab until you have a reason not to.

Very cool! Congrats on your first slab purchase! Is it one of the older white ANACS slabs? As there much smaller than the PCGS, NGC and new ANACS slabs... Not that it matters, lol, I'm just curious. And actually those small white ANACS's are by far my favorite slabs to date...

Crack it out, don't crack it out.. It's up to you, totally your call! I collect primarily raw, but if a slabbed coin catches my eye I buy it, and most get cracked out.. But others I've left, I don't know why, the blank holes in my albums bother me, but a few of the slabs I started to like and just havent brought myself to break them out het..lol. I primarily collect Morgan's, and buy my own empty slabs and inserts and use a slab album, and at first I cracked them out but now I just throw that slab in the pages instead... Either way though, no big deal. Do it however you like it!

@mds: I need a new camera cord I promise I will show it off somewhere after I can get one.

@wilhelm, denco, and everyone else who's advised leaving it in: I'm going to, at least for now, after consideration. I can always crack it out later but I can't un-crack it.

@cali_nick: I suspect it's a $13 coin because melt is about $10 and the slab itself has a crack. I pulled out my loupe earlier to look at a nameless I got from the darkside bin and there is decidedly a stress crack (you know, where the plastic turns all milky-looking?) on the side of it. I don't care, it was the coin and not the slab I wanted, but I bet that's enough to land it in the discount bin. I may go back this week and see what else I can snag!

@nathan: The part that holds the coin is about the size of a 2x2 (taking into account all of the cardboard space as well) and the part with the authentication has a yellow label and is about half that size again. I doubt it's an older slab, as the back has a holographic label and advises me that the ANACS website is anacs.com.

Very cool! I still remember my 1st slabbed coin purchase a few years back (a AU-58 3 cent silver) and have added many since then. The thing is that slabs take up a lot of space if you get a bunch of them.