As a bit of history, what feels like a long time ago to me, coin dealers would buy and sell from/to each other using a coin newsletter called the greysheet. The idea was that they could buy coins from each other sight-unseen and pay the going dealer rate for any given coin. Well, as we all grade our chips differently, so do/did coin dealers. Back then, there were MS-60, MS-63 and MS-65 (or for collectors BU, CHOICE BU & GEM BU)... now there are MS-60 through MS-70 with qualifiers for both mint state and proof state coins. All this courtesy of slabbing... ahh, but I digress! The "original" purpose of slabbing coins was to act as a "guarantee" amongst DEALERS that the coins they were buying sight-unseen, were actually graded uniformally (that's the idea at least). PCGS for example has gone through stages... some years they graded very tight, while other years (when the competition came... they started to grade a little looser (or more like their competition)). When the first slabbing companies came to be, the dealers never really saw the end result... they were looking after their own interests. But then... BANG... collectors started collecting slabbed coins, everyone had to have the BEST and the rest is history. I can't remember when they started breaking down the grades between MS-60 and MS-63 for example... but the problem was there were significant differences between the two mint states... if yours looked good, it may have received an MS-63 (and actually been an MS-61). The truly amazing problem it created was the delta a single grade could make in the value of the coin. Let's take a 1963 PR69DCAM Lincoln (I've bought these for $200 each) and a 1963 PR70DCAM Lincoln (this one just sold for $20,000+). That's a difference of $19,800 for a SINGLE grade! That's the difference between a hobby that's embraced slabbing and one that has not. Imagine finding 25 newly discovered chips... today, you sell them to your friends for $10 each and your happy, your friends are happy and the hobby grows. Now imagine finding the same 25 newly discovered chips, but this time you decide to get them slabbed. If you have $5 each in them, then add $10 each for slabbing. Now, you are inclined to sell them for $20 each, you may not sell as many and your friends may not be collecting anyway because they can't afford chips... well heck, you have no friends left only other speculators and investors. So, instead of $20 each, you sell the lowest grades for $25 each, and the best one, which is now the highest graded chip known sells for $1,200! Congratulations!

P.S. Feel free to ask me my opinions on why the sportscard market, beanie babies, comics and other hobbies were ruined by greed.

P.S.S. If you can't keep up with the L/Es now... wait until the hobby grows with speculators and investors! Those annoying guys on HSN will be selling slabbed MS-70 Hard Rock 50 State $100 chips in sets of 50 for only $15,000. Better hurry, only 2,500 sets were made and there will be NO others produced!

P.S.S.S. Slabbing companies sell that slabbed chips will remain their condition if slabbed, hence retaining their value (and may even increase in value). The only problem is, an AIRTITE will protect the chip in the same manner... it may not be hermitcally sealed, but that way you can actually touch the chip (wearing virgin cotton white gloves of course).