With fake and poor grade coins flooding the market, it can be tough to tell what makes a coin worth buying. In an effort to keep coins safe, valuable, and establish a comprehensive standard grading scale slabbing and grading coins was developed.
Coin slabs are typically made of a hard, transparent plastic material and are designed to preserve and protect the coin while providing a clear view of both sides. The slab usually includes information about the coin’s grade, authenticity, and other relevant details. This type of encapsulation helps to maintain the coin’s condition and prevent tampering or damage.
A basement slabbed coin is a coin that someone slabbed at home without the help of a coin grading service. I have also heard them referred to as just “basement slab.”
Should you buy a basement slab coin?
Overall, a good coin is a good coin. If you want to buy a basement slab coin just make sure you know what to look for. Obviously, the coin listed on the slab is not going to be trustworthy. So you have to be able to appraise the coin by sight yourself. This can be hard if you are buying online on a website like eBay.
Another consideration is if you are buying directly from the basement slabber. I get the feeling that most basement slabbers are looking to stick coins in a case and hope their generous grading drives up the cost of the coin. I personally wouldn’t want to support someone financially who profits from lying to new collectors.
How to identify a basement slabbed coin?
Some basement slabbed coins will be more obvious than others. A really obvious one may have a coin grader listed that is not a common company like PCGS, NGC, ANACS, or ICG. Some collectors like the look of slabs over carboard flips or albums. Some collectors are trying to establish their own coin brand. A great example of this is the ddddd or u1toning coins. (Those names are both usernames.) You can read a post from ddddd from cointalk about his slabs here.
It may also look as if it is from PCGS, NGC, ANACS, etc. but the slab does have the correct coin inside. Whether the actual denomination is wrong, or it contains a fake, or just the grade is higher than the coin deserves.
When should you buy a basement slabbed coin?
If you can get a really good deal! I can’t highlight enough that you should know what you are looking at. Coins look more expensive in slabs, so don’t be fooled by the fancy packaging.
This company Hallmark Coin Grading Service or HCGS, has a reputation online of grading coins too highly. You can research the company to see what some common grading mistakes are made.
How to make a basement slabbed coin?
Maybe you just like the look of slabbed coins but don’t want to pay the price, or you want to practice your grading skills and preserve some coins. I hope no one is asking this for the intent of defrauding some innocent collector.
You can buy empty coin slabs online and fill them with whatever coin you choose. Here are some links below for common sizes:
You can store your slabs in a box like this:
Share your thoughts in the comments. I would love to see more examples of coins and hear your experiences!
American Coin Stash 
Good write up! I admit I am here to present an alternate mindset to this as well though!
I was around when the first grading company, ANACS, decided to set themselves up as THE hobby experts that everyone “needed” in order to accurately grade coins. They also introduced the Sheldon System as being their more superior way of grading coins. The sad part is that any coin slabbed and broken out is capable of getting another grade meaning their entire proffered goal of an accurate and ‘trustworthy grade’ goals are still not in effect.
ANACS’ sales pitch was not accepted well back then, and the people I was associated with saw the company as just some small group who had brainstormed a business idea finding a way to get their fingers “into the pie” of all the money being spent in the coin hobby.
But before going further, I need to introduce some history I lived through. The context is needed for modern readers to catch the entire mindset.
We need to start with when bill clinton was put into office. He said the main goal economically of his party was to get the American standard of living down to the rest of the civilized worlds’ lower levels so globalism would be easier to implement. Over the decades, they have succeeded.
But what in the world has this to do with coin grading?
Back when people had more money in their pockets they OWNED (typically by age 30-35) thier houses, cars, TV sets, appliances, etc. Instead of being in debt, Americans used to spend the money that (everyone had) that was burning a hole in their pocket.
So when ANACS started up, they were aiming to get their fingers into those pockets with some sort of business scheme (nothing wrong with a business – that is not a negative statement). This was the era where the Beanie Baby and Pet Rocks were similar business ventures…but cash was piad as opposed to today’s debt-trained society.
However, most people did not fall for ANACS’ sales pitch. School systems were still teaching HOW to think instead of WHAT to think back then, and so overall a lot of people did not think the new business model invading the coin hobby (and that is how we saw it) was anything more than what this column is about…someone trying to say they can grade coins and setting themselves up as an authority.
The internet and eBay etc. put slabs in front of coin collectors daily and, as is human nature, people started to just accept them as being a natural part of the hobby. So the big boom in the grading businesses came about.
PCGS and NGC also employed another psychologicl trick to get them ahead in the business. They made people have to pay for a memeroship (sort of the “elite club” nonesense mind trick), and so their companies started to have an, undeserved, but higher status. While some readers may want to fight to the death over that last statement the very fact there are PCGS and NGC fanboys who can “prove” their preferred choice of company is the “best” proves what has been said aout undeserved status.
So let’s make some observations comparing “official companies” and basement slabbers:
1. Basement slabbers who mean no ill have come and gone while trying to set up a business like the big guys have. I am not referring to those basement slabbers who are just trying to take people for a ride.
2. These basement slabbers use their own methods/ideas/experience. So they use non-veriifable (by any scientific means) methods to put a grade on a coin. If you took one of their coins out of their slab and submitted it again, the grade may very well be changed. These same basement slabbers also look for any other marketing idea to promote themselves as being qualified to slab coins. And…wait a minute…I just described the professional companies as well. Hmmmm…..
3. Basement slabbers who are trying to be legitimate see themselves as being qualified to grade coins. So do the main companies. So what about comparing the experiences of the two slabbiing sources?
A “legitimate” basement slabber may have legitimate decades of experience in handling and grading/viewing/seeing/comparing coins vs. where a company trains (charging a fee for business profits of course) a person with a short course and dubs them a “professional grader.” In fact I personally have friends with 30-50 years of experience in legitimate dealings with coins whose eye I would trust much more than any “professional” company.
4. The comanies say by usng ultiple graders, they can give the the “right grade.” At the same time former PCGS president Ron Guth sayd that the best graders only get it “right” 85% of the time.
But just a minute…if the best ones only get it “right” 85% of the time, and there is no verifiable way used to tell what the “right” grade is, the how do you know when someone gets it “right 85% of the time? The Reality of the situation is like using an non-calibrated ruler to try to accurately measure anything! You just have a general idea…sort of like a basement slabber…yes?
It boils down to this: If you want a legitimately graded coin you can trust the grade on, then until a legitimate and verifiable system of grading coins is re-implemented like the late-90s-abandoned scientific system (giving one true and verifiable grade meant no more re-slabbing cash cow so companies re-implemented the human system despite having called it inferior when marketing their scientifics systems), always buy the coin and ignore the slab IF you are after collecting coins themselves.
If you are one of the people who enjoys just enjoys slabs (they do look nice and can be fun!) and/or you like registry set competition (also a genius money maker for the companies) then by all means, collect the slab+grade+coin. As long as there is a market for ink on the label vs. verifiable grading (that is NOT a negative comment), enjoy YOUR hobby the way YOU want to. Hobbies are about FUN and someone telling us how to enjoy our hobbies is a ridiculous concept. :^)
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Always enjoy your comments! I am going to quote you in the body of the article so it is easier for those to find looking for more information. 🙂
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Thank you! I enjoy reading your articles!
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I’m with you on that brewer. It occurred to me as well that by controlling what grades are issued they effectively control Rarity. When the valuation differences between ms 62 ms 65 and ms 69 of the same coin are considered, it would behoove them to grade something
An ms 67;rather than a 69 if they haooen to be buddies
With the only person that was ever given that grade. Making. His coin worth 20,000 more at auction than anyone elses.
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