Peter: I AM not going to ban anything. That decision (if discussed by the present or by the incoming new Board Members) will be made by elected club officers. I'm an individual club member; just like you are. I have a voice on this bb; just like you do. I (and the majority of others who have expressed their thoughts) have an opionion that vastly differs from yours. My opinions are based on years of unpleasant experiences in the coin hobby with slabs. You concede that you nothing about slabs. There is nothing more that I can say that will stop the silly "what-if" word games you are engaged in. If you don't know what this issue is all about by now, then I don't know what else I can say to you (or anyone else) that will clear it up for you.

But I think that YOU DO KNOW, exactly what the issues are by now. I've already offered my detailed explanations, I've given actual links to various slab auctions on ebay, I'll give one more significant personal experience that I've had and will let it go at that... before putting this puppy to bed ... and "letting the chips fall where they may."

You say that you know nothing about coins. I do know something about the subject. For those of you who are un-familiar with my background, please excuse me while I tell this factual story that some of you "old-timers" may have already heard.

Years ago, before becoming SERIOUSLY interested in chips, I specialized in lettered edge Bust Half Dollars, struck prior to 1836. I was a member of the presitigious Bust Half Nut Club, whose requirements were that a candidate for membership had to be sponsored by a BHNC member, own a minimum of 100 different die marriages (combinations of obverse/reverse dies) and pass an interview with at least two other club members to determine if I had the "fever", had a basic understanding of how to grade bust half dollars, and if I was a suitable candidate for membership in this august group of collectors. I was thrilled when my application for BHNC membership was accepted.

The club maintained a computer listing of every bust half dollar by grade that was owned and submitted by each individual club member. The club compiled and issued an annual confidential census by grade and die variety of Bust Half Dollars among the members who had to affirm that this census would not be shared with anyone outside the club... especially with dealers. In fact, coin dealers were not allowed to join the club initially. However, some BHNC members became dealers later on in their careers, but as long as they pledged confidentiality to the census they were allowed to remain as BHNC members.

After about a year or so in the club, I volunteered to take over the duties of Newsletter Editor when the current Editor had to step down due to illness. I served in this position for a couple of years. When the abusive slabbing and overgrading problems were going on with other silver coins, primarily Silver Dollars, the collectors of Early American Coinage (including those of us in BHNC) were not too concerned, because it did not affect them. The dies for these coins were hand made and struck on screw presses by brute force, before the steam press was invented in 1836. Who would slab a lettered-edge half dollar or Early American Copper Cents? After all, we needed to see/examine the lettered edges under magnification in order to attribute some of the varieties. Couldn't do that if the coin was permanently sealed in a slab.

Lo and behold, it happened. Bust Coinage became the next target for the slabbing companies, because there was money in it for them. Collectors (and investors) became primarily interested in the coin's grade and state of preservation .... (and value) rather than studying die characteristics.... and prices began to escalate quickly. MS63, MS64, MS65, MS66, MS67 became like daily stock market quotes.

Al Overton's book, which was considered "the bible" on bust half dollars, at that time listed 447 known die varieties. At the time I left the hobby, my collecton of 407 different bust half dollar die-varieties ranked among the top 10 members of the club. Slabbing simply took the joy out of collecting for me.... and others. I left that hobby primarily because of slabbing of a coin that I was truly in love with. That's when I decided to consign my entire Bust Half Dollar and Bust Dollar collection to Sheridan Downey, of California, a well-known, well-respected specialist coin dealer of early U.S. Coins. Since then, I have collected nothing but casino chips.

As the famous quote attributed to Yogi Berra once said, "it seems like deja-vue, all over again".

So perhaps now you have a better understanding of where I'm coming from. If you would like to take advantage of what I have learned from my experiences, you are welcome to it. If you still think that slabbing will be good for the chip hobby, and more specifically for CC & GTCC, you are entitled to your opinion... one that I do not share.

Peace, my friend.