CAC - Editorial Opinion In 9/1 Coin World

I think there's an underlying systemic issue when a sticker can impart worth to a slabbed coin--without being directly confirmed by the coin itself. Even for a slab's label to have any merit, one should be able to simply look at the coin and confirm the grade for themselves. A sticker on top of that becomes just one more lofty opinion--vague, unverifiable and therefore easy to duplicate. How long before the actual coin becomes immaterial and fully obscured by endless casings, stamps, and labels? And someday, through a small porthole in the slab there will remain just a faint glimmer of what the hobby once was...
--Just my thoughts.

And if you can do that, you don't need the grade on the slab, which takes us back to my original argument. Coins should be certified as genuine, period.

One of the stupidest things slobbing has done is to create two classes of coins. Slobbed coins, which have a market value, and genuine but problem coins, which by extension are worthless. It's only been in the last year or so that a service openly grades problem coins instead of body bagging them. (I think ANACS did, too, but I don't think they promoted it).

Let's be realistic. If a G 1916D dime is worth $1100, no amount of arguing will convince me that the same coin cleaned with an eraser is only bullion. So certify it as genuine, and let the market decide how much to knock off for the cleaning.

One potential effect I see with CAC is that it may be a way to bridge the spread between an NGC graded coin and the same coin in a PCGS holder which at times can be a fairly significant percentage. A coin should fetch the same price, regardless of whether it is in a PCGS holder, an NGC holder, or an ANACS holder. But experience shows otherwise.

BiggFredd, your idea that slabs should only be for authentication is a good one but ignores the economics of the slabbing companies -- their money is made on the grading, not the authentication.
I don't think anyone disagrees that you should buy the coin, not the holder, but the holder can give a buyer a starting point. If I see a coin in a PCGS MS64 holder, I will generally assume it is somewhere between what I believe is a 62 and a 65. Many I see in a 64 for instance, I think are closer to 63 and on some occasions a 62. That is because I think the services, PCGS included, tend not to discount enough for a poor strike. Of course, there are instances where I believe a coin in an MS slab should be AU.

I have wondered from the beginning with CAC how there is not a counterfeiting problem with the stickers. Has anyone heard anything about what CAC is doing, if anything, to prevent it? They should have a database that you could check to make sure the slab serial number matches up.

I have negative feelings regarding this whole service since it came on the scene. It is undeniably effecting the marketplace and prices for all of us, but in my mind it isn't really aimed at the collector. It is tailored for the investor with little or no experience with coins. They are reassured by the green football when they are plopping down "x" number of dollars on something they have no experience in evaluating. The sight unseen market is growing I believe and this is another slick way to extract a larger premium from the unwitting.

As for the average collector, it really isn't user friendly yet. Their website has yet to list a fee schedule for the service. An odd business practice if you ask me. Finding someone to submit is also not easy. I have been told by a local shop that is listed on CAC's website as a submission center that they will no longer provide the service to the public due to "issues" that have recently come up. They stated they will submit only their coins but not the public's?

Grading is ultimately an opinion, not a science.



It sounds almost like they want strictly upper-tier coins, where incremental grading upgrades can possibly mean a lot more $$$ changing hands. Not to sound cynical or anything, but what kind of business do you suppose that directly benefits?
Any guesses?

BiggFFred Said,
My sentiments exactly, and your comments ring true and are SPOT-ON. All the rest is just FLUFF and Fancy Opinion...

Take Care
Ben

We've got NGC certifying privately minted "Unions" that don't even go thru the motions of being made legal tender by some banana republic. They contain an ounce and a half of silver for $100. Either NGC or PCGS certified silver eagles as having been found in the vaults of the demolished WTC.

How dare you call anything else a gimmick to separate folks from their money.

I just wonder if I get my MS-64 1895-S Morgan cac stickered will PCGS upgrade the coin to 65 if I resubmit it with the sticker on the slab