Slabbing of GSA Morgans...

[miko999]

A dealer at the June Long Beach show said NGC will be slabbing/grading GSA Morgans leaving the gov case intact; anyone have any updates on this, or was it just a rumor?

[Guest]

I have heard they would look at them and give you an "on the spot" unofficila assessment, but have heard nothing about getting an official judgment.

[BillJones]

A slab around a slab?

 

Traveling to show is hard enough aready without adding more bulk to your cases. Perhaps NGC will follow the PCGS lead and add "GSA" to pieces that were cracked out of the government holders and placed in the certification slabs.

[dragon]

PCGS putting "GSA" on the holders is pointless and just a marketing tool IMO as nearly every single common date CC dollar was part of the GSA hoard.

 

Dragon

[paigow_johnny]

I was the "anonymous" above, before I registered.

 

If they're gonna slab it and give an "official" grade, they will crack it out of the GSA holder...otherwise they give you a quick look assessment without close study.

 

I agree that GSA on an NGC or PCGS holder kinda kills the whole idea. I've got a bunch in the original holders with box and card...to me that's the whole purpose of collecting those. Just like "cracked out" Redfields...

[miko999]

Yes, a slab is a slab is a slab, but how would you explain the vast price differential between GSA slabs and grading service slabs on certain dates in lower grades (60-63), ie 78-CC, 90-CC, and 91-CC?

[BillJones]

The only explaination I can offer is that collectors WANT the coins in the GSA slab, and to them a GSA holdered coin constitutes a different class of collectable. I can tell you that back in the 1980s and part of the 1990s that dealers viewed the GSA slabs as a detriment to selling the coins. Large numbers of pieces were routinely cracked out and sold "raw."

 

Part of the reason was that dealers could put a fancy "overgrade" on them and get more money. Another reason was that some of the pieces that were not marked "Uncirculated" could be cracked and sold as Mint State. Some of those coins actually were Mint State. The guys - some of whom were college kids - who graded the GSA coins had only received a crash course before they went to work. To some GSA gradeers toning constituted the hallmark of a circulated coin. Even collectors didn't think much of the GSA holders. They preferred to put the coins in their albums. All of this considerably reduced the supply of GSA holdered coins.

 

Here's a thought. Could we some day see counterfeit GSA holders? There is certainly enough of a premium for some dates to encourage the practice.

[Oldtrader3]

Good post, Bill. I agree with your assessment completely and could not have said it better.

[paigow_johnny]

miko....with regard to the ones like 78/79/90/91-CC...there were so few of them slabbed by the GSA in relation to the mintage...combined with the fact that a lot of them probably got cracked out if they were choice pieces...that the existing number of those dates in original GSA condition is very few. This is one example, I'm afraid, where part of the cost is the slab factor, and that does appeal to a group of collectors. I personally collect the dollars in the GSA slabs...these and the original Redfields are my two exceptions to weighing the slab factor....although I haven't broken down and paid the 4 figure prices for a 79/90/91-CC

 

Bill...you brought up something I've wondered about from time to time. I haven't given a REAL close look to the GSA slabs...I'm wondering if there's someone smart enough out there to crack those slabs and swap out nice pieces with lower quality ones...

[GDJMSP]

You guys have got to stop giving scammers ideas. The come up with enough on their own.

 

I collect GSA's - and only in the original GSA slabs. That's what makes them collectible to me. Otherwise they are just another coin.