What's the deal with thick PCGS slabs?

Samets

I recently purchased a 2014-W Baseball Hall of Fame $5 curved gold coin and noticed that it's housed in a thicker slab. This is the first such slab and I was curious why it's in this thick slab that doesn't fit my storage box...

At first I thought it's due to the coin being curved and requiring a thicker slab but I just bought a 2019-W $5 Apollo 11 50th Anniversary coin and it's housed in a standard width slab... Both coins measure 0.141 inches in height so that's out...

Any insights would be appreciated...

NJCoin

Just on its face, the curvature looks much deeper on the baseball coin, and this is without even checking the specs, which is probably easy enough to do if you are so inclined. I'm sure PCGS would not have gone to the trouble and expense of a thicker slab if it wasn't necessary.

lermish

I had an Apollo $5 slabbed and it came back in the thicker holder. Probably just chance of whoever is doing the encapsulating that day.

Samets

@NJCoin said:
Just on its face, the curvature looks much deeper on the baseball coin, and this is without even checking the specs, which is probably easy enough to do if you are so inclined. I'm sure PCGS would not have gone to the trouble and expense of a thicker slab if it wasn't necessary.

That was my first thought as well but checking the specs I learned that both coins measure 0.141 inches in height.

Samets

@lermish said:
I had an Apollo $5 slabbed and it came back in the thicker holder. Probably just chance of whoever is doing the encapsulating that day.

That's interesting and the plot thickens... (Pun intended)

JBK

Why not change the title of the thread to the subject rather than your user ID?

Samets

@JBK said:
Why not change the title of the thread to the subject rather than your user ID?

Fixed. Sometimes my password manager confuses this field for the sites user name...

Aspie_Rocco

I am not certain but I believe all of the curved coins have thicker holders due to the abnormal height of the coins. I have never seen a curved coin that was not in an extra thick holder.
I have one of the baseball dollars also.

coinbuf

They heard that the CAC slab was going to be thicker and tried to get ahead.

Crusty

Is there a box they make that holds these?

Samets

@Aspie_Rocco said:
I am not certain but I believe all of the curved coins have thicker holders due to the abnormal height of the coins. I have never seen a curved coin that was not in an extra thick holder.
I have one of the baseball dollars also.

Look at the 2nd picture I posted...

1madman

I was told by a knowledgeable source within pcgs that thick slabs are used to relieve pressure on the outer plastic from cracking/bursting with coins who have different thickness and/or dimensions. High relief coins, curved coins, even palladium eagles present problems in normal pcgs holders.

Maywood

There's really nothing suspicious or questionable about a thicker slab. They're used on thicker coins/medals which would otherwise come into contact with the shell. I have slabs from both PCGS/NGC which are in excess of 3/4" for thicker medals. To my knowledge neither company makes a storage box for them, although NGC used to but they were discontinued several years ago.

Downtown1974

Could just be a slab generation issue. The thicker slab is an older generation PCGS holder. Maybe that’s what they used during that time frame?

Samets

@Downtown1974 said:
Could just be a slab generation issue. The thicker slab is an older generation PCGS holder. Maybe that’s what they used during that time frame?

Possibly. I would def. be happier with the standard slab.