once slabbed, stay slabbed?

ad4400 · November 28, 2005 12:06AM

I've read lots of posts about cracking out slabbed coins for regrading and reslabbing, but how many of you crack out coins for the purpose of adding it to your collections? The idea has always seemed somewhat nuts to me as a new collector, but I've been told that people do it "all the time", and as I become increasingly frustrated at finding nice raw coins, I'm wondering if it is so nuts after all.

So do people crack out the coins and put them in albums? Is it really done "all the time" or was I being pitched a sales line?

Alain

Cladiator · November 28, 2005 12:09AM

People do do it all the time. There are several crackout experts here that maintain the majority of their collection raw.

tjkillian · November 28, 2005 12:09AM

Yes, folks do it all the time. Typically it is done with lower-grade, rare-date coins. Imagine putting together a circulated set of early Lincoln cents. Knowing how common fake 1914-D cents are, you purchase one in a slab. You get the coin, say graded F-15, crack it, and put it in your album.

I would not think cracking a PCGS PR-68DCAM Accented Hair Kennedy half dollar out of its slab would be very common though.

Tom

pharmer · November 28, 2005 12:24AM

If that special coin comes along, and it happens to be slabbed, no problem, out it comes, and at least it has been in a protected environment. I was like you, wondering about those who go from slabbed to raw, but I get it now. Also, raw is the best way to image.

versus

MrHalfDime · November 28, 2005 1:41AM

While I cannot speak to the custom of cracking coins out for 're-slabbing, I feel that I am the rule rather than the exception for many Bust and Seated collectors, as well as many early copper collectors, in my ambivalence toward slabs. I have bought many coins in slabs, from various TPGs, but once home, they all get cracked out. I virtually ignore the slabbing company, and especially the grade on the insert. I guess I am old school - I look at the coin, and make my decision to purchase based purely upon the coin, the grade it appears to me, it's surfaces, color, eye appeal, etc.. The reasons for cracking a coin out of a slab are many, but include the need to weigh, measure, and study the coin, particularly the edge and reeding, and to photograph it. As I collect only half dimes, a very small diameter coin, the slab reducing rings used by most TPGs encroach severely over the surface of the coin, making it difficult to see even the coin's surfaces, let alone the rim and edge. Also, most slabs, after a very short time, become so scratched and marred that you cannot properly see the coin. After I have weighed, measured, photographed and otherwise studied the coin, I place it in one of my own 2" x 2" holders, and write any pertinent information on the holder, including my own perception of the grade. I can store a large collection of half dimes in 2" x 2" holders in a significantly smaller space that I could if they were all in slabs. This may be my own particular preference, but I can assure you I am not alone.

I do have just one half dime still in a slab. It is an 1848-O V5 Small O half dime, with the John J. Pittman pedigree on the insert. Those who know me cringe at the prospect of cracking it out, thinking that it is somehow more valuable in the holder, with the pedigreed insert intact. I feel that the coin is what it is, with or without the insert. I have not decided if I will crack this one out or not.

Cladiator · November 28, 2005 1:47AM

Mr.HD,

I've always found trouble and been annoyed at the lack of 2x2's for half dimes. I've had many a half dime in the smallest 2x2's I could find (10¢) and the coins rattle around in there like mad. They won't sit still and, well, it's just frustrating. Are you using specific half dime 2x2's or no? If so...where can I get some!

marmac · November 28, 2005 1:50AM

To crack or not crack? I would say less then a third of my collection is in slabs. I crack coins all the time, for many of the same reasons mr halfdime stated. As time goes by, I find myself looking at slabs as more of a fancy 2x2 and what do we all do with coins purchased in 2 x 2's? We get them home rip them out of the 2x2 study the coin and either place them in envelopes,albums, or a new 2x2 with our own info noted.

coppercoins · November 28, 2005 2:27AM

I don't like slabs, thus any slabbed coin I buy gets the crack-out. I also don't submit coins for slabbing, so the ones I free don't go back into slabs.

airplanenut · November 28, 2005 2:40AM

My type album has a sheet of paper in the back covered in labels... when the right coins came in plastic, a few hits with a hammer or a few snips freed them for good.

Barndog · November 28, 2005 2:48AM

I spent some time this past weekend cracking about twenty slabs (bust coins: half dimes and a couple of half dollars) that I just hadn't had the time to get to for a while. What a great pleasure to finally release the coins and be able to appreciate their true beauty.

JJM · November 28, 2005 5:33AM

I crack them out, remount them for my presentation box, then indicate on my list that they were slabbed / graded at one point,.....I enjoy them more out of the slabs and all tidy...If whomever gets em next dont believe it or wants to slab it , so be it.......

topstuf · November 28, 2005 5:59AM

I'd rather stick a paper disc in an album than crack the coin out and have to ....ever....send it in again.

once slabbed, stay slabbed?

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