Haven't seen this before...Accugrade California

SurfinxHI

...found this out in the wild. It's got some odd mottled toning and is under by a point or two. I haven't seen these before, just the photogrades. Basic research says this was stabbed in 87/88, and folks tend to think these were overgraded. I think it's interesting. What say you slab collectors?

BIGAL2749

I recall seeing a number of these at the same time that NCI,SEG,+PCI (spelling?).

I believe they had a lawsuit with one or both major TPG

Grade looks close for a weakly struck 84-O (common for date)

mannie gray

I can't recall seeing one with "CALIFORNIA" on it.

ricko

I have seen those slabs before at coin shows out west.... Cheers, RickO

U1chicago

Accugrade had several offices over the years and some were noted on the back of the slab.

See Conder101's explanation here:
http://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=188423

U1chicago

Here is a brief snippet from the link above, per Conder:

"ACG began in 1984 and in 1986 opened branch offices in California and Iowa. The Iowa branch was not open for very long. The California office was run by Randy Camper and was open for at least two or three years and moved at least twice during that period. The California office slabs come with four different reverse labels One with the address of the San Francisco office, one with the address of the Long Beach Office, One that simply says Accugrade California, and one that just says Accugrade WEST. All of the California slabs are scarce, the San Francisco being the most common of the four."

SurfinxHI

Cool, thanks for the link U1chicago. I hadn't seen that.

Does anyone actively collect these, or are they a footnote in numismatic history now?

ElKevvo

They are collected by some, I know of at least one who has a small collection of odd slabs, myself! It is one I have not seen before but I am in the central US so not surprised. The coin looks accurately graded, possibly one under IMO if there is luster that is not shown in the photos.

Thanks for posting that ....I'll have to keep an eye out!

K

bob48

I have not seen that type before.
I do collect out of business slabs and like to fine them in the wild. Dealers like to sell them to me because they just don't sell in those slabs. And are tempted to break them out just to sell the coin.

291fifth

Slab collecting is a thin specialty area. I wonder how many serious collectors are actually interested in them? I'll bet the number is quite small.

BStrauss3

I have, I think, finally, finished imaging all of my Accugrade slab labels, now I'm going to start analyzing and classifying them. There are several I know I don't have, California and West among them.

It gets really interesting when you look at them in detail, with several different fonts, different equipment (dot matrix vs, laser/ink jet), etc.

If anybody has images they are willing to share, please let me know.

johnny9434

never seen california on that before either.

U1chicago

@BStrauss3 feel free to use these images:

BStrauss3

Nice - two fractionals.

I have examples of the PhotoSlab with the same reverse but an integer grade. I wonder if they used other than .5 for those (it's not a 64 but better than a 63) coins.