What Company Issues These Slabs?

Bradford Exchange (note the B in the shell).

Figure that the original purchaser paid about 3x retail. Now after that's done and somebody is willing to pay an honest price, OK. But that first purchaser tax - somebody has to pay for the direct mail, catalogs, beauty shots, etc. - is aweful.

"Lustrous AU+ 1898-P Morgan silver dollar"?
I think not. And at the current bid of $15.26 + $4.29 shipping, it's already above melt value.

Basement slabber. Ignore the grade.

Which is easy to do, since the slab doesn't actually mention any attempt at grading. The seller might have name-dropped a grade, but the slab does not. I'm pretty sure "VG" isn't an attempt at grading here, though what it does mean in this case, remains a mystery.


"Authentication" means for Bradfield Exchange the same thing that it means for the TPGs: that, in the opinion of Bradfield Exchange, this is a genuine Morgan dollar and not a counterfeit. There is an implicit assumption that Bradfield Exchange will stand behind this assertion, and offer you a refund should they prove to be wrong about its genuineness.

Whether or not you think Bradfield is competent in such authentication, and/or whether their guarantee is trustworthy, or even whether Bradfield would feel obligated to support that guarantee to a third-party or fourth-party buyer, are questions left unresolved.

Also questionable is whether or not this coin would get a clean grade at all. Given how badly scuffed and scratched Liberty's cheeks appear to be, I would not rule out the possibility that this coin has already been deemed ungradable by a TPG, and Bradfield thought the coin could be better marketed in an ambiguous Bradfield slab than in an unambiguous TPG Details slab (or bodybag).