Slabbed Coins

[1949threepence]

Well many others have already given the same answer to your question that I would have given. So I'll confine myself to saying that slabbed coins are not a favoutite of mine, although I do appreciate the accuracy and reliability of the grading. But I don't like the fact that you can't get at them, nor the premium on price which always strikes me as a bit of a racket.

Nor the fact that they immediately make your fine set of mahogany coin cabinets redundant and useless.

Well that wasn't the reason for my reply, but, yes, you are right

[darren]

I prefer un-slabbed coins but you have the piece of mind you are buying genuine and correctly graded coins. If I buy a slabbed coin I leave it slabbed but personally I wouldn't send any of my collection away to be slabbed. You can break the slab using a pair of pincers though. you tube has loads of tutorials.

[TomGoodheart]

Slabbing is irrelevant to me. The coins I collect (hammered) generally are unaffected by handling since they have toned over the years and, so long as you are reasonably careful, unlikely to show any additional marks.

They can't be graded in the same way as a modern milled coin in that there's a degree of subjectivity since a coin is rarely uniformly struck all the way across. A coin that is sharply struck across 50% of it's face for example will command quite different prices depending on whether it's the portrait or legend that is sharp. So a slabber's opinion of grade is irrelevant to me; how much I want the coin will depend on whether it's any improvement on all the other examples I've seen and whether it appeals aesthetically. Nobody else can make that judgement call for me.

I find slabs make it difficult to see the edges (and sometimes even the shape of a coin. And they don't fit in my cabinet!

So for me it's a no-no. I've only bought one slabbed coin and immediately 'liberated' it to get a better look.

Of course, if I collected a different series, such as milled copper, I might feel differently.