Your ideal slab design?
TurtleCat
Posts: 4,628 ✭✭✭✭✭
This isn’t about any existing slabs made by any company. This is about what you would try to accomplish if you could design the ideal slab. Obviously the cost of the slab is a consideration but I’m not considering cost for my ideal slab.
For me, the ideal slab would be a plastic shell and it would seat the coin in the middle but have an apparatus to allow you to push the coin out a few millimeters so you could better see the full edge. Obviously the apparatus would be hardened and protected somehow. And the slabs would stack when in the correct position. The slab shell would have a color stripe to indicate the coin’s composition.
There would be a resized photo of obv/rev on the label, maybe even as a background for the label. The coin type and grade would be on front, top, and reverse of the slab.
NFC for sure. I think there should be some NFC charged wire embedded to also indicate if the coin had some kind of tampering done (within reason). It could return some kind of code to indicate authenticity so it would increase the difficulty of making a fake slab.
Maybe some kind of color changing spot that would change color if the slab is gassed or has been in the presence of a foreign substance.
What would be in your idea slab?
Comments
Solve the cheap stuff before throwing out cost constraints.
Low cost, low weight, durable, yet able to be cracked open, high quality optics, slightly concave lens surfaces both to protect them and to mitigate glare. Attractive, non-gimmicky label with predictable pieces of information in predictable places, top-reading label, pentaprism ring to allow viewing of edge from straight on (not necessary for all coins), physical and chemical tamper-evident qualities, good feel in hand (no hint of sharp edges), nice stacking, NFC for authenticity verification.
For varieties, a close-up of the pick-up point and an extended description (oh, wait, I already do that
).
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
top-reading label,
my first thought
Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb, Ricko
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
Top reading labels.
Uniformed size so they'll all fit together in the same storage box.
So definitely top labels. I think labels on the reverse side are equally important. Certainly low hanging fruit. I guess I’d be pretty ambitious about my slab design. Swing for the fences.
Wow.... I guess I just focus on the coin. I really do not care about the slab, and incorporating all that extra stuff (such as in the OP) is just unnecessary as far as my interests go....Cheers, RickO
Top labels
Easy in and out of small ziploc bags, e.g no feet
Easy stacking
Transparent gasket
Airtight.
I really like ngc holders with graphic art such as this.
If they do a top reading label I hope it looks better than other top reading labels that I have seen.
Hard thick acrylic like capital holders except with no easy way to crack, sealed & rounded edges. No paper label, instead information engraved from the inside. Possibly a built in magnifying glass and the choice to order it in round, just in case I don't like the grade it would make a nice clay pigeon shot.
I like the idea of some form of built in magnifying glass.
The SEGS slab, which has been around since the 1990's. Is probably the best designed slab of all time. I'm very surprised the owner of the slab rights has not licensed it for use by other third party graders.
Tamper evident protection...like those gadgets in stores...where permanent ink would explode all over the coin if the slab is tampered with...
Err, wait, maybe that's not such a good idea...
The design patent expired several years ago, but even when they could have licensed it, doing so would have created a situation where either SEGS or the licensee would have felt disadvantaged to be associated with the other.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution