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Yeah! Take it all off, baby! Now, with a picture!
mirabela
Posts: 5,201 ✭✭✭✭✭
Wanted to share my exultation at cracking out a bunch of coins this afternoon (first time I've done this) for my 7070 album. I learned about the different techniques re: hammers and bolt cutters for ANACS, PCGS, and NGC. Liberated today are:
1812 Classic head cent S-289
1829 Bust dime JR-7
1838 Bust 25c B-1
1833 Bust 50c
1838 Reeded ege Bust 50c
1855-O w/ arrows Seated 50c
1856-O no-motto Seated 50c
Also, as the album was home, added some raw upgrades --
1858 small-letter Flyer 1c
1857 no-legend 1/2 dime
1866 shield 5c w/ rays
1857 w/stars Seated 10c
1853 w/ arrows 10c
1875-S 20c
I'll refrain from comments on condition; suffice to say some are enviable, while others are embarrassing. They're all welcome here. Some of these had been queued up & waiting to go since last summer. It's a happy day in my coin collection
Below, a picture of one of my favorite groupings:
1812 Classic head cent S-289
1829 Bust dime JR-7
1838 Bust 25c B-1
1833 Bust 50c
1838 Reeded ege Bust 50c
1855-O w/ arrows Seated 50c
1856-O no-motto Seated 50c
Also, as the album was home, added some raw upgrades --
1858 small-letter Flyer 1c
1857 no-legend 1/2 dime
1866 shield 5c w/ rays
1857 w/stars Seated 10c
1853 w/ arrows 10c
1875-S 20c
I'll refrain from comments on condition; suffice to say some are enviable, while others are embarrassing. They're all welcome here. Some of these had been queued up & waiting to go since last summer. It's a happy day in my coin collection
Below, a picture of one of my favorite groupings: mirabela
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Cracked out an AU mid date large cent, a NGC64 83CC Morgan, and a couple of low MS Indians for my 7070 this afternoon, too.
Is it becoming a way of life when you go to the mailbox with bolt cutters and hammer in hand?
Ah, as it should be. Those early coins are so very important. They should all be set free...early eagles, any seated, any bust, flowing hair, small eagles, completely delicious.
ANACS: real easy. Wrap in rag, wallop long edge w/ hammer. 2 halves pull right apart. Remove insert.
NGC: same idea, but slab shatters before seam comes all the way undone. Some risk of scratching coin here as you withdraw insert from blasted pieces of clear sleeve.
PCGS: bolt cutters just above 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock around the edges; this frees the flexible round insert with the coin inside. As above, some risk here if your first two cuts aren't sufficient to free the insert, as the surfaces of the coin will then be exposed to flying plastic shards.
I didn't ruin anything, but the possibility definitely was there. Proceed w/ awareness of your own risk.
For this as well as a litany of other reasons. I *love* ANACS slabs.
while I like having coins out of holders... I dont understand why you would crack them out of holders where they are more protected..
(im also a new collector so I dont know much anyway).
First, why did I crack them out -- for aesthetic reasons, 100%. I'm building a nice (for me) type set, and I was very unhappy with the state of affairs where all the OK or substandard coins were in the nice book together but where the best coins should have been there were blank holes referring me to slabs stored elsewhere. I know it's really all the same, but I like being able to see them all there together. In a sense I've been building this set since I was 8 years old (I'm 33 now) so I felt it wasn't too much to ask for it to look the way I want.
Second, about them going down in value -- you have a point, but only to a degree. The coins are worth what they are worth, in plastic or out. If I want to sell them, especially sight unseen to a buyer who is a stranger to me, the slab will help me to get what they are worth in exchange for them. These are coins, though, that I have no intention of selling in the foreseeable future. When the time comes for them to be sold, as it surely must eventually, if the market then works as it works now, they'll be slabbed again before being offered for sale. It's worth the cost of re-slabbing to me to be able to view them this way.
Third, about them being better protected in the slab -- surely you're right. While I think they're reasonably safe in the album, getting into and out of the album is certainly a time they could incur damage. Those album slides, in particular, can really screw up a nice coin. For this reason, I did not put the couple of most valuable mint state coins into my album. The nicest pieces of all still aren't in there, but I couldn't justify the risk. Maybe some day if the holes bug me enough I'll buy AU examples to fill them! For the same reason, I have not bothered to buy the gold page, but kept my gold set in TPG holders.
I was expecting some open forum stuff here.
Sounds like you had fun--that's what it is all about.
<< <i>Doesnt it feel good when you look at that page for the first time with new coins in it? >>
That's it in a nutshell!
LBGrob~
In addition to Mirabela's comments, there's also just something in being able to truly hold the coin. Even with gloves, feeling it's weight, being able to view it directly, not through plastic...
It's just not the same in the slab.
btw-
As we speak, everything in my collection has been cracked out. Granted, I prefer VF-AU range pieces, but there are more than a few MS pieces resting in my Dansco's. Sometimes I hesitate (more out of fear of potential damage than anything else) but it always ends up outta the plastic. Now, if we were talking 19th century proof gold... that would probably stay in the slab!
(But mostly 'cause they don't make an album for it
Like an airtight round, on bottom with a squared off section on top big enough for the lable.
The lable could be kept to a small size by using a small font and 2 lines only. Coin type and grade, and cert #
Granted you wouldn't get a lot of holes per page and albums would be thicker.
pz
(Priest) BLASPHEMY he said it again, did you hear him?
just started my 1857 mint set.som im learning !
Proof
Eagle
Why are Barber Halves so expensive?
Crack out's .... are not always what you would wish. Got an AU-58 Half Dime...sight unseen and I don't think I will crack it out because I don't think it would re-grade at AU-50!
Snapmohr, I understand the dilemma about cracking out what might not regrade. The arrows Seated half (in the wrong hole, I realize now, where the no-motto is supposed to go) in this group may not reholder. It's a fantastic coin that saw a little light scrubby-dubby at some point, and PCGS gave it an implied net grade instead of bagging it. Am I sure the same would happen on the next go-round? Not really. I broke her out anyhow as it is one of the very last coins I'd ever sell in any case, and in plastic or out probably wouldn't make a difference of more than $50 or so on that particular piece.
Anyway, thanks for looking folks. Keep looking. I'm totally delighted about the aesthetic results of my demolition work. I've been oogling my set nonstop since. My wife surely wishes I'd shut up about it by now.
I have run into this as well. I buy something on ebay thinking I'm covered because it is slabbed, even though it is a bad pic or no reverse pic. But when I get it, there's NO WAY I'm cracking that thing out!
But I did crack out a MS64 Texas commem that was hazed over with PVC. I couldn't stand looking at it in the slab, and now that it is free from PVC, it looks awesome in my Dansco. I'm sure I wouldn't have cracked it out if it was problem free.