NGC Settles First Strike Lawsuit

I was one of the buyers at one time, I have most of the eagles with the "first strike" designation and paid a premium for them. I did not learn till later that these were really no different than any other eagle.

I suppose it is possible for the Mint itself to actually pull ,say, the first 1,000 coins of each new die set and call them first strikes. I hope they don't get any ideas from this ! Just another way for the mint to soak us. I guess production is just to fast to just stop it for a few first strikes out of billions of coins. I am glad anyway, that means there are first strike coins in circulation ! I am going to start looking for them right now........

Amazon, PCGS DID get sued..they settled out of court and no one is saying what the details of the settlement are, but they are still using the designation and I believe they justify it by only certifying coins released by a certain date. Never mind it has NOTHING to do with when they were struck , just when they were packed and dated.

And if they use my Idea of pulling those first 1,000 coins..remember you heard it here first when I sue for my cut !

G'day from Oz,
I've never shared the American preoccupation with TPGs. I think most Australians are the same.
Slabbing devalues a coin, in my view: a bit like wearing a raincoat in a shower.
I have seen slabbed coins, bearing descriptions that are plainly wrong. So, TPGs are illusory, in terms of indicating value.
At the end of the day, if I want a coin of a particular type, I decide what I'm willing to pay, and look for an example that I can afford, and which seems to be a good representative of the species. I've found that by closely watching the market for the next coin on my want list, I can recognize a good buy when it comes along. An alphabet-slab does make a good buy into a better buy; but more importantly, it doesn't turn a dud into a good buy.
I read the linked article, and was much better informed - thanks for that. I now have even more reason to avoid TPGs.
By the way, I don't collect NCLT, and so I expect my coins to display evidence of circulation.
Regarding InfiniteInterest's suggestion:
"I suppose it is possible for the Mint itself to actually pull ,say, the first 1,000 coins of each new die set and call them first strikes. ..."
I would have thought 999 of his samples were erroneously described. "First" means "number one". If it were otherwise, then I might come "first" in a marathon or a 100-metre dash, as long as I find a meeting with less than a thousand competitors.
Peter in Oz

Peter Thomas is alleged to have uttered herein:

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I've never shared the American preoccupation with TPGs. I think most Australians are the same.
Slabbing devalues a coin, in my view: a bit like wearing a raincoat in a shower.
I have seen slabbed coins, bearing descriptions that are plainly wrong. So, TPGs are illusory, in terms of indicating value.

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My Gawd! - Are you Ozzies nothing but hardcore coin collectors or what? Gees, what about investment, speculation, overgrading, crack out and regrading, re-submittal etc. Look at all the fun and utter wastes of time and usurious expense you art missing out upon.

Well I guess you can figure how I feel about TPG's slabbing in general etc.

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I heard that some of the First Strikes in the past were actually just ones that were sold in the first few weeks or months of the year,

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The guidelines for First Strike for the bullion coins, which were the first coins that they did it on, was that they either had to arrive at the TPG by Jan 31st. (30 days from the release date) OR they had to be in the sealed green shipping container from the mint with a date on the packing slip proving that it had been sealed up before the Jan 31st cut off. It was this second requirement that caused the problem. The bullion coins begin production in AUGUST of the preceding year. So there are potentially six months worth of production that are eligible for the First Strikes label. Then they started extending the First strike labels to some other items. On those at least they required them to either arrive at the TPG before the 30 period expired, or have a postmark from the mint dated during those 30 days.

I say that you will now probably find yourself on a dozen mailing lists hawking overpriced garbage. But it was a good deal on the dollars. And those dollars you got are an example of the product of a bulk submission that slabbed the ones that didn't make the cut without a grade on them. The company probably submitted several boxes of dollars and anything that didn't make at least MS-67, which could be sold for a bunch of money, got put in one of those Brilliant Uncirculated slabs and sold off as a loss leader in order to build a client mailing list. (Which can also be sold off)