Just What Does "Sample" Mean?

Thanks Baseball...interesting to note that someone is willing to buy a discolored 1970 ungraded clad quarter for just about what I buy the whole mint sets for....just because it's "in a slab"...very sad.

To each their own...I'm starting a type set of old nasties(culls and damaged)

I've actually been chatting with the author of the Sample Slab book published in 2015 and 2016 about those.

To me, sample means a low value item, created to showcase the underlying product. Refer back to the traditional salesman's samples you sometimes see on Antiques Roadshow.

Both David and Conder101 in his earlier book went beyond a pure sample to include various flavors of promotional items. And they've included several that have significant intrinsic value. A gold 2 pesos, 5oz silver puck, etc.


Arguably, this large series of "samples" is designed to promote FastCoin and thus is within the hobby. I just don't like it.

What irks me is that these seem to be done to create samples for sale just because of the word sample. Yet I happily own another one done purely to add the "sample" label to something that's otherwise got intrinsic value. And I wouldn't give that one up.

So yes, I am embracing my inconsistencies.

Oh and sometimes the joke is on the other foot. Somebody bought ones of these samples, realized it's the rare B type reverse and is/was trying to sell it as an unattributed rarity for $250.