Slabbing: The spectre of slabbing chips, continues to pervade the hobby. Though I am 100% against slabbing chips, I must ask, is it ok to have Tokens and Silver Strikes slabbed?

1st, a history of slabbing, and what effects it, had on the Coin World:

The 1st slabbed coins appeared in the early 1980s. The first companies were ANACS, PCGS and NGC. In the case of ANACS it was a way to preserve your coins. The others developed as a way of valuating/selling your coins sight unseen. Kind of like the way bullion trades...A MS XX coin would trade at $XX dollars.

A fairly good idea...but it got way too hyped in all the coin trading media, and somehow became the standard. Now, there are even standards regarding not only the grade of your coin, but who (which service) graded it!

This turned me off from collecting coins (Especially American coins) for many years. What brought me back was my love of Morgan dollars, Jefferson nickels, Standing Liberty quarters, Draped Bust large cents, Colonials and Errors!

IMHO, there is no reason that a Casino Chip should be graded/slabbed. The variations in a chips grade would be so diverse, that it would boggle a modern computer. One would have to take into consideration such things like: Press, Wear, Coloration...etc.

Tokens: I would consider encapsulating (Note, not slabbed), an extremely nice token like my collection of Pussy-Cat-a-Go-Go's.

Maybe I'm rambling a bit here...but post what you think!

==Mike==
R-5986