How Does One Go About Cracking Out Slabbed Coins?

I remember in a recent post,(1917 D type 2 SLQ for grading) Slider23 said on NGC slabs he just hits the edge with a hammer. I use a bench vise. Maybe you can find his post in the US classic grading forum list.

Whoa. I'd pick up some cheap "not worthy" slabbed coins and experiment on cracking them open before I do it on a nice slab. Everyone has different tools available and different abilities so work within your comfort zone. Me personally, I'd pull out my dremel cutoff wheel and buzz a nice slice around the coin but to me, that is easy... to somebody else you'll probably cut your finger off.

Hah! MS Paint works wonders! I'm actually able to do pretty well with image manipulation and digital art. These are from 2 series my team is, or has already finished, translating. All original text is completely scrubbed and left with a blank slate. This means that a majority of this is done by hand drawing over the original image in order to remove all traces of the original text. The first image, the black and white one, was a challenge as I had to keep the stripes pattern and the shadows accounted for. The second was a challenge as, well, it's in full color, which means I have to deal with color gradients and not only drawing the image, but what's underneath it as well. Oh, and FYI, that censor was a precaution, it's not inappropriate, buttttttt you can never be too safe.

First, my hats off to Grape for taking the time to grace us with his.... diagram

Second, for NGC, I use my foredom flex shaft ( dremel is the same concept) to cut off all edges, then it's just cones right apart. 2 sides will suffice and pry open, cutting all sides just eliminates prying and risking hitting anything. I used to use my dremel diamond wheel cutter but it ends up cutting and melting NGCs plastic so I switched to a dremel wood cutting wheel. It's messier but cuts quicker.

PCGS plastic I cut with the rotary or just cut all the raised edges with heavy duty wire cutters, then lightly pry in half.

ANACS I use a small flathead and pry the reverse top right corner open, slide the screwdriver in and pops right open

Using GrapeCollect's high resolution guide, I make a cut with a bolt cutter right on the edge of the slab where his red line crosses and then another on the opposite side. The slab will crack across the slab from those two points and you can just pull it apart.

Note: The yellow ANACS slabs can just be pried open with a screwdriver.

A photo from my archives:

Well done!