Are You Repulsed By Plastic? Do You Live By PCGS?

Color me neutral, tending to favor the slab as value/rarity rises. Like it or not, the majority of the market places some level of importance in the TPG signoff, and it can be very difficult to sell a raw coin of any real value.

On the other hand, I like to hold raw coins. There's a detachment to holding a slab which makes it a less-visceral experience, almost as if I don't actually own the coin, but only a piece of plastic containing something akin to a picture of a coin. If there's plastic between you and the coin, does it actually exist?

I have been a "serious" collector AKA investor in coins since about 1976, or a few years thereafter. I signed up for the 2 or 3 day ANA Coin Grading Seminar at the Pittsburgh ANA Convention about 20 years ago. What I found out there, was my eyes are not good enough to grade coins and unless you have piles of coins passing through your hands, likely your grading ability will be very limited. So, based on that experience, I have limited most of my buying to Certified coins. I do buy some foreign coins that are not graded, but usually they are not very expensive or proof versions. I have bought many different varieties of brands, but, I think in the long run, I prefer PCGS. The problem with PCGS is there are not as many foreign coins to choose from in PCGS holders as in NGC, and PCGS does not grade things like "like dollars". If I were buying a premium coin, it would have to be in a PCGS holder, Or something I just could not pass up at a very reasonable price. I consider myself more of an investor in coins than a collector. I stated that at the ANA seminar only to be ridiculed by several participants. My view was and still is; if you are concerned about the value of your collection, you are an investor, if you are not worried about the value of your collection, you are a collector. That view was not well received there and likely will not be well received here. But, you asked.

I personally disapprove of slabs, for various reasons besides the ones already stated.

I live on the far side of the world from slabland. This greatly increases the cost and time involved in using their services. Slabbing is a peculiarly North American phenomenon; a couple of "slabbing companies" have attempted to start up down here, but all have failed due a lack of interest from collectors here, and the relatively small collector base to begin with.

The lack of access to slabbing means most coins around here are raw. I never even saw a slabbed coin here in a coin show or coin shop display until a couple of years ago. Most of the old guys in the coin club still have no idea what slabs are until it's explained to them.

Slabbing companies make mistakes, and mistakes made by them become accepted as gospel. For example, in the catalogues now there are proof coins listed for years in which Australia issued no proof coins, simply because the slabbing companies (accidentally or erroneously) have graded some of those coins as proofs. This "the TPGs can't be wrong" attitude also leads to the whole silly "crackout game", where coins are resubmitted again and again in the hope that the coin will eventually be bumped up a point.

Australian grading standards are more conservative than the ones used by the gradeflated US slabbing companies; their "EF40" would barely make VF here. Having two grading standards is overly complicated, and unscrupulous sellers of slabbed coins can make an easy profit by selling coins slabbed with US grades using Australian catalogue prices. Plus, this "overgrading" by the slab companies adds to the general impression here that "American TPGs can't grade our coins properly".

As well as modern coins, I also collect ancient and mediaeval coins; the TPGs (thankfully) are still reluctant to slab them, and even American collectors in these series generally disapprove of slabs. Grading and valuing a hand-struck coin is much harder than simply giving it a one-size-fits-all number. Each ancient and mediaeval coin is different, owing to the method of manufacture; as such it's virtually impossible to buy such coins "sight unseen" based only on a listed grade.

Finally, a slab's promise of security of authenticity is false and misleading; besides the occasional fake coin slipping past the TPG graders, it didn't take the fakemasters in China very long to realize they could make much more money from their fake coins by making fake slabs to put them in. So now you've got to go around teaching everyone how to spot a fake slab. Frankly, I'd rather learn about coins.

What Sap said.