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Delux Slabs made out of Glass and Silver

braddickbraddick Posts: 25,103 ✭✭✭✭✭
Why not? How about if the submitter was willing to pay extra PCGS offered custom slabs made out of the highest quality glass (low glare) with a silver foil insert with black font lettering.

They would weight a bit more but I'd imagine on your special coins the look would be outstanding.

These holders would be presented to you in a custom cherry wood box (smaller version from that which is sold now through PCGS).

Comments

  • That sounds pretty nice! A great coin deserves a great holder.
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  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 47,509 ✭✭✭✭✭
    PCGS tried a fancy extra cost slab called the Regency. It was an oversized slab and you could add your own message on the label within reason. It came in a fancy velvet bag with a draw string. They dropped it after a couple of years since very few people elected to use this option. The problem with glass is it would be very difficut to sonically seal them.








    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • braddickbraddick Posts: 25,103 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>PCGS tried a fancy extra cost slab called the Regency. It was an oversized slab and you could add your own message on the label within reason. It came in a fancy velvet bag with a draw string. They dropped it after a couple of years since very few people elected to use this option. The problem with glass is it would be very difficut to sonically seal them. >>



    1- Yes. I owned a Recency slab. It's not even in the ballgame. Still plastic and larger (in this case) is not better. The beauty of the holder I'm thinking of would disgrace the Regency holder. Smooth high quality glass that would afford perfect viewing of the coin. The total package would be highly attractive and on your special coins, totally worth it.

    2- Glass would be difficult to sonically seal but not impossible. In fact, in some ways, once sealed, the glass holder would be more secure than plastic.

  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 47,509 ✭✭✭✭✭
    braddick---Bottom line: can PCGS sell enough to make it worth their effort?


    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • pontiacinfpontiacinf Posts: 8,915 ✭✭


    that sounds dangerous, drop a glass slab and what?

    are you asking this because your looking for an alternative to aide in better viewing of the coin?

    I watched one of those Modern Marvel series on the history channel. It was about "the making of eyeglasses" Seems to me if they can mill plastics down to correct vision, couldnt smoeone create a slab that had the same "vision" properties as this eyeglass lenz.

    maybe thats a stupid question, but glass just does not sound feasible IMHO- but great thread

    thought provoking indeedimageimage
    image

    Go BIG or GO HOME. ©Bill
  • braddickbraddick Posts: 25,103 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>braddick---Bottom line: can PCGS sell enough to make it worth their effort? >>



    Well, I have five I'd send in today if this service was offered and I wouldn't blink paying $100. per coin extra.

    On your best coin- the ones you cherrish the most, be it a killer rainbow toned Morgan in MS67 or a VAM that is downright rare and desireable, or any coin of your choosing- can't you see yourself wanting it custom holdered and presented well? Shouldn't the holder be as worthy as the coin?

    We pay so much for our coins to begin with that sticking our most prized ones in $5. (that's the reholder price) plastic slabs seems almost unkind and mocks the coin.

    I believe out of the millions of coins already PCGS graded there would be a few hundered, if not a few thousand, that would end up being holdered under this new service. I think it would be profitable for PCGS.
  • etexmikeetexmike Posts: 6,852 ✭✭✭
    Sounds like a great idea to me.

    I have several coins that I would consider the extra cost to have slabbed that way.

    You have pull with PCGS. Offer the suggestion.

    -----------

    etexmike
  • ms70ms70 Posts: 13,958 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I think it would be cool looking if they could engineer it to the same size as the current slab with the entire slab clear. No textured surfaces, just clear glass with rounded edges.
    It would be sharp if the coin & label had a floating in space effect like a coin sealed in a paperweight type of look. They could be slightly concave to form a rim that really wouldn't
    be visible unless looking closely. I guess they wouldn't stack well but so what- The sole purpose would be the best presentation possible.

    And PCGS really could work on making the label look nicer.
  • CoxeCoxe Posts: 11,139


    << <i>that sounds dangerous, drop a glass slab and what? >>



    Then make them out of a plane cut enormous flawless diamond instead of glass. These would have to be for megaspecial coins and you definitely do not want them to be rattlers if they have even the slightest edges or points.
    Select Rarities -- DMPLs and VAMs
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  • tincuptincup Posts: 5,479 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Why not? How about if the submitter was willing to pay extra PCGS offered custom slabs made out of the highest quality glass (low glare) with a silver foil insert with black font lettering.

    They would weight a bit more but I'd imagine on your special coins the look would be outstanding.

    These holders would be presented to you in a custom cherry wood box (smaller version from that which is sold now through PCGS). >>



    Sounds like cracking out a slab might be a little more dangerous...!
    ----- kj
  • ColonialCoinUnionColonialCoinUnion Posts: 10,087 ✭✭✭
    I could see a market for a special presentation slab, but glass sounds like a crummy idea. Sorry.
  • michaelmichael Posts: 9,524 ✭✭✭
    optically correct plexiglas plastic hermitacally sealed slab

    25 dollars per slab for any coin you want sealed and it will be the same size and thickness of the pcgs slab and you will be able to see the edge as it has four edges the coin fits into
  • MrHalfDimeMrHalfDime Posts: 3,440 ✭✭✭✭
    I'm sorry to say that this idea is not new - it's been done, and it was done as early as 1813!

    Russ Logan, co-author of "Federal Half Dimes 1793 - 1837" and "Early United States Dimes 1796 - 1837" wrote a fascinating article in the December 1999 issue of the John Reich Journal (official publication of the JRCS) entitled "Slabbing Circa 1840", in which he told about Boston glass blower Thomas Cains, and the incredible glass pieces he manufactured. One of Thomas Cain's many talents was to produce a glass bulb, or knop, in the piece he was making, and somehow encapsulate a coin within the glass knop. Russ described several known, although very rare, Thomas Cains pieces in which were encapsulated Capped Bust dimes and half dimes. The glass 'knops' are completely airtight, and have completely encapsulated and protected these coins for over 150 years. In his article, he actually attributed the Capped Bust dimes and half dimes he had seen in several Thomas Cains glass pieces, including an 1834 JR-6 dime.

    Perhaps of greatest interest to me was an 1831 LM-6/V1 Capped Bust half dime, an R1 marriage, in commercial UNC grade, but completely original, with surfaces untouched by human hands, not even exposed to the environment, since ca. 1840. What made this even more incredible was that Russ had traveled 1000 miles, from his home in Cleveland, OH to my home in Maine, drove me about ten miles from my home to a world class glass museum near my home, took me upstairs to a second floor display case, and there, on the top shelf was a beautiful Thomas Cain blown flint glass goblet with a knop in the stem, and there in the stem was the 1831 half dime. I had visited that glass museum a couple of times, but was completely unaware of the 'slabbed' half dime, yet Russ, who lived half a country away, knew exactly what and where it was.

    So encapsulating coins in glass is an old idea that certainly predates David Hall's slabs ....... by about 130 years.
    They that can give up essential Liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither Liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin
  • braddickbraddick Posts: 25,103 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Just to add a little to what's been asked:
    If it's possible to make bullet proof glass and shatter resistant glass (think windshields) then how difficult to make break resistant glass? Plus, really, how aften do you drop your coins/slabs onto concrete floors?

    That's kind of cool it was 'done' 130 years ago but I'd think we've come a long way in perfecting glass so as to make it a more viable format in almost any application- including the safe and secure (and attractive!) holdering of valuable coins.
  • FrankcoinsFrankcoins Posts: 4,572 ✭✭✭


    << <i>

    2- Glass would be difficult to sonically seal but not impossible. In fact, in some ways, once sealed, the glass holder would be more secure than plastic. >>



    Glass cannot be sonically sealed.
    Frank Provasek - PCGS Authorized Dealer, Life Member ANA, Member TNA. www.frankcoins.com
  • braddickbraddick Posts: 25,103 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Why would it need to be?
    There are other methods to weld a glass seam.
  • KoinlinkKoinlink Posts: 593 ✭✭✭
    MrHalfDime- Excellent story!

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