Assurance for the Investor
For the investor interested in buying quantities of
Uncirculated Morgan dollars, or Saint-Gaudens $20 pieces, or other popular
series, slabs offer the assurance that many if not most other buyers and sellers
will agree at least approximately with the numerical or technical grade, and
that slabbed coins are readily salable at a generic or sight-unseen price. In a
market in which investors dominate the market for Uncirculated and Proof coins
in higher grade levels, slabs would seem to be a blessing for the uninformed
buyer; not the ultimate answer, and not the be all and end all, but an extremely
valuable service nevertheless. In general, low-end and unattractive slabbed
coins tend to be sold to investors and unknowing buyers, who are more interested
in "good buys" than in quality, as I noted earlier. Many investors
don't even know about quality, for they have been conditioned to believe that
one coin graded MS-65 is just as good as any other coin graded MS-65.
Satisfactory Experiences
Many people, undoubtedly the majority of investors and a
goodly number of collectors as well, have had thoroughly satisfactory
experiences with the leading certification services. Writing in Coin World,
Maurice Rosen, a grader for NGC and publisher of The Rosen Numismatic Advisory,
defended the certification services against criticisms made earlier in the same
publication by others. Excerpts:
"`Not a change for the better in our human
housekeeping has ever taken place that wise and good men have not opposed it -
have not prophesied that the world would wake up to find its throat cut.'- James
Russell Lowell...
"Rather than being subject to hyperbole, the buyer has
been unburdened of confusion and danger by the PCGS and by NGC. Rather than
suffering losses, the high-end `slab' buyer has been cleaning up profits while
the buyers of low-end coins may have been gaining hours of enjoyment but little
or no profits. Rather than buying coins before a soon-to-become more
conservative grading standard, the buyer has seen a consistent standard in
effect for four years, backed by hundreds of dealers and rock-solid guarantees.
