Removing A Graded Coin From A Slabbed Holder

What's so bad about that advice? It depends on the coin and the album being put together.

@88isgreat, you got a good deal, but I don't see that it demonstrates that cracking a coin from the slab was a good thing (or a bad thing). It was a good deal that happened to be in a slab. It was the same coin and deal before you cracked it.

I've cracked some more expensive coins for my type set album. For example, I don't want to buy a raw Seated Liberty dollar as the nicer ones are in slabs. However, I'll purchase a TPG graded one so I can have a complete album. One was a CAC stickered coin and I don't regret it!

One of the OP's original questions is whether a coin's value negatively affected by taking it out of it's professionally graded holder. The answer is generally 'yes' but there are circumstances when that may or not be true (an undergraded coin for example or one with a details grade that may grade straight based on today's grading standards.) there is no clear cut answer and it's a case by case basis.

Crack it.

You would be dead, what do you care?

Coins are to enjoy now, not make your heirs rich later.

Thank you.

I also feel that if my heirs do not appreciate the sentimental value or do not make an effort to research anything before selling then they deserve what they (do not) get. Hopefully the buyer will appreciate them, if only for the deal they got.

Again, I am dead and would not be affected.

I have cracked many coins out of slabs to fill my CAPS albums.

I usually do it when I find a great deal on a slabbed coin that I need. I think that many people send off their coins in "hope" of getting a high rating, but then when it comes back without the desired rating, it gets sold off on the secondary markets (ebay, coin shows, etc). When I go to shows or my LCS, I am more then happy to make a "reasonable offer" to the dealers to take these off their hands, crack them out, and put them in my nice album.

For example, when I was putting together my " Presidential dollars" set and my " State Quarters set", I was often able to find better quality "Slabbed Coins" that were often as cheap as getting them "Raw", especially if I bought a "lot" of them (several at once).

It is also a nice way to avoid getting "problem coins' for my collection. For example, Peace dollars are often "cleaned" which I want to avoid. I am not an "expert" to detect anything except very obvious cleaning so if I find a nice Peace dollar in a holder with a nice rating, I at least know it's not cleaned and will be a nice addition to my album. Yes, I try to 'buy the coin not the holder', but the holder certainly reduces the risk for me and I know they are grading "reasonably well" and "genuine". If it says it is a MS63, it is probably pretty darn close.

But I agree that once you crack it out of the holder, you have lost your 'proof' of the grading, and if I was buying on ebay, there is no way to ensure that "cracked out coin" you are seeing was actually in the holder they are showing. could have been swapped, and you lose the whole idea of the "guarantee" of the holder.

Michael