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Who STARTED calling them "slabs?"

topstuftopstuf Posts: 14,803 ✭✭✭✭✭
Was "Cointainer" copyrighted?
That was good.

Comments

  • MGLICKERMGLICKER Posts: 7,995 ✭✭✭
    Eric Holdered.
  • WoodenJeffersonWoodenJefferson Posts: 6,491 ✭✭✭✭
    Is the 20 coin holder box called a 'rasher' of slabs?
    Chat Board Lingo

    "Keep your malarkey filter in good operating order" -Walter Breen
  • 291fifth291fifth Posts: 24,595 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Interesting question. The "slab" term was in use quite early but I don't recall just how early and have never heard who coined the term.
    All glory is fleeting.
  • lunytune2lunytune2 Posts: 1,077 ✭✭✭
    I refer to it as fossilized ! image
  • ms70ms70 Posts: 13,956 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Years back I ran into a dealer that pronounced is as "slob".

    Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.

  • stmanstman Posts: 11,352 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Who ever starting calling them slabs certainly didn't get it right. As they sure weren't in their "final" resting place.
    Please... Save The Stories, Just Answer My Questions, And Tell Me How Much!!!!!
  • ScarsdaleCoinScarsdaleCoin Posts: 5,313 ✭✭✭✭✭
    That was Al Gore after he invented the internet
    Jon Lerner - Scarsdale Coin - www.CoinHelp.com
  • Coin FinderCoin Finder Posts: 7,346 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Hannibal Lecter
  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 32,632 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Was "Cointainer" copyrighted?
    That was good. >>



    THe E & T Kointainer Co. has been around since the late 60's or early 70's. I started using them in the 70's.
    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • Cougar1978Cougar1978 Posts: 8,723 ✭✭✭✭✭
    That would be difficult to pin down, the term caught fire really quickly.

    I remember a World Coin Dealer who did all raw stuff came by calling my table at a show "Slab City" circa 1994. I remember buying some world gold coins from him at melt at the show. These were beautiful proofs in capsules.

    In had one case I had slabs stacked 6 deep With one layer = to 80 slabs this was 480 slabbed coins. Two other cases had currency and another one had a combo of slabs and USM material.
    Coins & Currency
  • 291fifth291fifth Posts: 24,595 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>

    << <i>Was "Cointainer" copyrighted?
    That was good. >>



    THe E & T Kointainer Co. has been around since the late 60's or early 70's. I started using them in the 70's. >>



    Actually, I think I remember reading that they started making their product in 1950.
    All glory is fleeting.
  • BStrauss3BStrauss3 Posts: 3,645 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Well, this patent (filed in 1989) calls them slabs: https://www.google.com/patents/US4903825

    -----Burton
    ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
  • CoinZipCoinZip Posts: 3,253 ✭✭✭


    I've often wondered who "Coined the phrase."

    Pun intended..... image


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  • ajaanajaan Posts: 17,562 ✭✭✭✭✭

    DPOTD-3
    'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'

    CU #3245 B.N.A. #428


    Don
  • I did a Google search by date. David Lawrence used the term in a coin listing on February 1, 1993. Can anyone find an earlier reference?

    Typographical error corrected.
  • shorecollshorecoll Posts: 5,447 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I remember people referencing coins "entombed" in plastic, so I guess slab makes sense.
    ANA-LM, NBS, EAC
  • lasvegasteddylasvegasteddy Posts: 10,409 ✭✭✭
    probably a couple mortician's in the break-room over coffee
    everything in life is but merely on loan to us by our appreciation....lose your appreciation and see


  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 32,632 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>I did a Google search by date. David Lawrence used the term in a coin listing on February 1, 1983. Can anyone find an earlier reference? >>



    On what? A GSA dollar case?

    PCGS did not start until 1986, and in 1983 I would not let ANACS encase coins.
    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It probably started around the same time someone started calling tarnished coins 'toned'...image Cheers, RickO
  • I definitely remember the term being used in the late 80's.
  • topstuftopstuf Posts: 14,803 ✭✭✭✭✭
    shlubs?
  • johnny9434johnny9434 Posts: 29,070 ✭✭✭✭✭
    geraldo's morque - you kill em, we chill em. aka slabbed. really though i have no freaking idea.
  • CubbyCubby Posts: 2,096
    " a couple of morticians in the break room over coffee" image


    BTW: Cubby=Cub Fan
  • CocoinutCocoinut Posts: 2,515 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>I definitely remember the term being used in the late 80's. >>



    +1

    Jim
    Countdown to completion of my Mercury Set: 1 coin. My growing Lincoln Set: Finally completed!
  • EagleEyeEagleEye Posts: 7,677 ✭✭✭✭✭
    IIRC, it was attributed to Larry Whitlow, probably through Jerry Bobbe when he worked there.
    Rick Snow, Eagle Eye Rare Coins, Inc.Check out my new web site:
  • messydeskmessydesk Posts: 20,236 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Scott Travers' Coin Collector's Survival Manual, uses the term in the 1988 edition.
  • orevilleoreville Posts: 12,126 ✭✭✭✭✭
    "holder" was also used but has faded from the scene.
    A Collectors Universe poster since 1997!
  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 32,632 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>IIRC, it was attributed to Larry Whitlow, probably through Jerry Bobbe when he worked there. >>



    I asked Mike Printz. He's pretty sure it wasn't Larry.
    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • TwoSides2aCoinTwoSides2aCoin Posts: 44,514 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Rumor has it that dealers who hated the idea of anyone sending the coin in, that they'd graded BU, Choice, UNC, or GEM, was really AU 58, or MS 61 and not really MS 63 or higher. And if people did send it in, they were committing numismatic suicide to question the dealer. This caused a bit of a stir for a couple years, until…

    Oh wait, it continues.

    Those dealers then began a smear campaign, accusing people of drinking koolaid and putting the coins in tombs, slabs, coffins, or other places that are reserved for the dead.

    Unfortunately the smear campaign never ended but the "term" stuck like files on _____.

    Believe it or not.
    ----------------------------------------

    Incidentally, I just made this rumor up.
  • MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 24,394 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I'm virtually certain I heard the term within a year of PCGS opening their doors. I remember who I heard it from, but I'm also sure he didn't coin the phrase. (He told me where he heard it.)

    Andy Lustig

    Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

    Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
  • CocoinutCocoinut Posts: 2,515 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I began subscribing to The Coin Dealer Newsletter in September 1988. The first mention I can find of "slabs" after that was in the Oct. 21, 1988 newsletter, which states "In the Certified Coin Dealer newsletter, the "Bluesheet", we have been commenting for many months about the volatility of the slab market." That infers that the term had been in use for some time already.

    Interestingly, the Certified Coin Dealer of Sept. 2, 1988 makes no reference to "slabs". The process used by PCGS was described as having a coin "sonically sealed in an inert, hard plastic container". NGC-graded coins were "placed in a "lab-tested" (inert), hard plastic holder and sonically sealed".

    Jim
    Countdown to completion of my Mercury Set: 1 coin. My growing Lincoln Set: Finally completed!
  • I am a big fan of 2001 A Space Odyssey and 2010 The Year We Make Contact. I think we should call them Monoliths personally.

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