The 10 Greatest Myths Of Slabbed Coins

cool read. thanks!

That was an interesting read. Heavily propagative, but interesting nonetheless.

One misconception within misconception #5 is:



The author then goes on to explain the disclaimer PCGS posts. It propagates a misconception that PCGS is somehow concerned and is "doing the right thing" trying to protect investors and collectors from the said misconception.

The fact of the matter is that PCGS itself was the one propagating the "Slabbed coins protect you from volatility" myth and subsequently entered into a consent decree in 1990 requiring them to disclose what they had. Notice also the article is originally copyrighted 1994...that was only a few years after the FTC investigation. The FTC write-up can be found at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/predawn/F93/pcgs-coin8.txt

My own opinion would mandate the following myth as the #1:



Let it be far from the truth. I read so much propaganda about how much the TPGs are doing to help "strengthen" the hobby against fraud and deception, yet so little about the legal structure of these entities is taken into consideration.

Most all of these TPGs are created as corporations. As a corporation (especially one publicly traded), the entity has a legal responsibility to conduct its business in the best interest of its investors. It is not to look after its customers, but its investors.

Now, I'm not gonna continue ranting on your thread, as there are some good educational points to glean out of the article. However, one cannot consider the "services" the TPGs have, do, and probably will offer without considering also whose interests they are really looking after.

A tiger cannot change his stripes, but he can surely get dirty enough not to notice them.

That's a very good read - thanks for sharing.

Interesting explanations and someone spent a lot of time doing that. No idea why but mostly correct. As to cracking them open, I've done that in seconds. I've seen dealers do it in seconds also and no damage to the coins.
And of course this was probably written prior to the newest wave of counterfeited slabs coming out of China. And no mention of all the basement varieties either.
All controversies aside, someone did try to make a possibly OK explanation of slabbed coins.

Scott Travers wrote it back in 1993 or 94 and updated it in 2004. The counterfeit slabs didn't start showing up til 2007.