Coin World explores how to liberate coins from their plastic tombs

BackroadJunkie

An article how a guy at Coin World liberated some entombed coins. Way more work than needed...

Crack-out fun with power tools: Performing slab ‘surgery’

Truthfully, the only coin I ever cracked out was an NGC PF68 RP Truman, which was probably worth more raw than in 68 plastic. Besides, I needed a intact Truman set. :-)

The ol' wrap it in a towel and smack the edges with a hammer worked just fine for me...

erwindoc

I use wire cutters to cut an edge off the slab and a flat head screw driver to wedge in and split the seams. It works better and in some cases breaks the seal right in two.

bronzemat

Originally posted by: BackroadJunkie





The ol' wrap it in a towel and smack the edges with a hammer worked just fine for me...

That's how I do it too with no problems.

ricko

Crack outs can be risky.... I find the simpler methods (such as described above) are the best...and wrapping in a towel helps to ensure the safety of the coin. A Dremel tool, with the proper bit, can unseal the edge very quickly... then, with a towel wrapped for protection, the slab can be easily split. Cheers, RickO

Baley

Bench Vice

rhedden

36" Stihl Chainsaw. Wear a hockey mask for facial protection, of course. Can never wear enough safety gear with power tools.

TopographicOceans

Protect those fingers

To protect our fingers as best we could, we had decided to use a clamp to secure the slab during cutting.


NO - Protect those EYES

Always wear eye protection. You never know where those chards of plastic will go and how fast they fly.