Photo Credit: Continental Coin and Jewelry
Listen closely, because I'm going to tell you a secret about the rare coin market that every numismatic investor should know.
The field of numismatics is dominated by third-party grading services these days. Coins submitted to these firms are graded by experienced industry professionals and then sealed in hard, clear polycarbonate cases. This simple concept revolutionized the trade, giving coin collectors and investors confidence that the coins they're buying are both genuine and properly graded.
However, there is a certain mythology surrounding certified coins housed in PCGS Old Green holders and vintage NGC Fatty Holders. Coins found in these early holders generally trade for slight premiums over coins of the same grade in more recent PCGS and NGC slabs.
But why is this the case?
In order to understand the reason PCGS Old Green holders and vintage NGC Fatty Holders sell for higher prices than newer slabbed coins, it is necessary to examine the early history of the grading services.
Before the advent of third-party grading, the coin market was the Wild West. Unscrupulous dealers frequently over-graded the coins they were selling, while simultaneously under-grading any coins they were buying. Dubious telemarketing firms and boiler room operations cold-called people trying to sell "investment grade" coins that invariably turned out to have been cleaned, damaged, over-graded or otherwise compromised.
Now this might not have mattered for the kid buying a common-date, circulated Mercury dime from his local coin shop. But it created a major trust problem with more expensive coins that were worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars. The lack of uniform grading standards was tearing the numismatic community apart. It wasn't hard to foresee a bleak future where average coin collectors - fed up with grading inconsistencies and problem coins passed off as good - would simply choose to quit collecting.
Something had to be done.
Enter a consortium of professional coin dealers led by legendary numismatist David Hall. These innovators believed that if coins could be independently graded by a well-respected numismatic organization and then encapsulated in tamper-resistant packaging, it would create a market where these certified, or "slabbed", coins could trade sight unseen as commodities. The resulting company, PCGS (Professional Coin Grading Service) officially launched in February 1986. Its primary competitor, NGC (Numismatic Guaranty Corporation), was founded just a year later in 1987.
But in order to convince the market that their new product was worthwhile, the dealers behind PCGS and NGC knew that they had to be scrupulous to a fault with their grading. If a coin was borderline, it was better to knock it down a grade and preserve the integrity of the firm and, by extension, the entire idea of third-party certification. As a result, early submissions to both PCGS and NGC were almost always conservatively graded by today's standards.
It was only many years later, as the certified coin market gradually came to mature, that PCGS and NGC found they could relax their grading standards somewhat. Therefore, collectors and investors tend to place a small premium on coins housed in earlier slabs from either major grading service.
PCGS Old Green Holder & NGC Fatty Holder Morgan Silver Dollars for Sale on eBay
The very earliest PCGS holders are known in the numismatic community as "Rattlers" because the entombed coin could sometimes move slightly in its case. These early PCGS cases featured white or green labels and smaller-sized holders compared to more modern slabs. The company produced Rattlers (PCGS Generation 1.0 to Gen 1.2) from its inception in 1986 until September 1989, when the firm discovered that they could be counterfeited.
PCGS quickly responded to this threat by updating the Rattler with a clear plastic exterior ring, barcoded label and reverse hologram sticker. These holders are actually old Rattler holders encased in a separate, clear plastic collar. These more counterfeit-resistant transitional type holders (PCGS Gen 2.0 to Gen 2.2) ran from September 1989 until January 1990.
By early 1990, PCGS had completed the engineering necessary to switch over to a single-piece, stackable holder with the familiar green label and reverse hologram sticker. These improved Old Green holders (PCGS Gen 3.0 to Gen 3.1) were used from January 1990 to September 1998. Because of their long production run, these holders constitute the bulk of Old Green holders in existence. It is important to note that the green label dye color was not always stable on Gen 3.0 slabs, sometimes leading to blue or yellow discoloration.
Because the earliest white label PCGS holders (Gen 1.0 and Gen 1.1) were only used during the first month of the company's operation, they aren't commonly encountered today. Due to their extreme rarity, these very early white label PCGS holders have an elevated degree of collectability among some coin enthusiasts, even when they don't hold very valuable coins.
In contrast, the beloved Old Green holders span all the way from PCGS Gen 1.2 (first released in February 1986; this first generation were also Rattlers) all the way to PCGS Gen 3.1 holders, which were discontinued in September 1998. Today's coin collectors and dealers often refer to Older Green holders by the abbreviation "OGH", which you will frequently find used in online auction titles.
Thankfully, NGC's holder history is somewhat less convoluted than PCGS's. NGC's first slabbed coins came in slick-looking, all-black holders. But this only lasted from August 1987 until December 1987, when the color was changed to white. This aesthetic change was made because while the original black background made bright gold and silver coins look stunning, it diminished the visual appeal of bronze and heavily toned silver coins. The early, all-black NGC holders are considered the most desirable early slab to many collectors, sporting prices that can reach into the thousands of dollars each, regardless of the coin they contain!
All-white NGC holders were produced from December 1987 until 1997 with only minor updates along the way, like the addition of barcoded labels in 1993. These are the vintage NGC Fatty holders (also known as "Fattie" holders) that many coin buffs treasure today. These slabs acquired their name because of their distinctively thick, "soap dish" shape, which was replaced in later generations by a slimmer, more streamlined form.
Now that we've got the history out of the way, we can talk more about why you might want to buy PCGS Old Green holders or vintage NGC Fatty holders.
PCGS Old Green Holder & NGC Fatty Holder Pre-1933 U.S. Gold Coins for Sale on eBay
First, some collectors simply enjoy the history that these older slabs carry with them. Many of these coins were traded back and forth during the late 1980s certified coin bubble, when Wall Street briefly burst into the numismatic realm. Investors bid up some coin series, like classic U.S. commemorative coins, to such absurd heights that even now - some 30 years later - prices are still off their all-time highs by as much as 90%!
As an aside, I believe this means it is a great time to buy many series of older, numismatically-oriented coins. After all, do you know anything else that still costs the same amount of money it did in the 1980s?
But for most collectors and investors, the primary reason to buy PCGS Old Green holders and vintage NGC Fatty holders is because you'll have a better chance of getting a solidly-graded coin for the stated numerical grade.
Even though third-party grading companies strive for consistency, coin grading is an inherently subjective endeavor. Sometimes graders - even professionals - come to work tired or have an off day. When the difference between a single numerical grade - like an MS-64 and MS-65 - can be anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars, making certain that you're getting what you're paying for can be priceless.
Of course, our discussion of vintage NGC Fatty holders and PCGS Old Green holders wouldn't be complete if we didn't broach the topic of crack-outs and re-submittals. Older PCGS and NGC slabs were often so conservatively graded that a cottage industry arose in the early 2000s centered on removing (or cracking-out) under-graded coins from their holders and then resubmitting them to the grading services in hopes of acquiring a higher grade.
Cracking coins out of older holders was so lucrative that it kicked off a veritable decade long gold rush from the late 1990s to the late 2000s. By that time, the third-party grading services had discontinued the strict grading of the PCGS Old Green holder/NGC Fatty holder era. So a conservatively graded coin in an older holder might very well come back from one of the companies with a one or (very rarely) two grade increase!
Unfortunately, the crack-out gold rush days are long gone. Most of the coins that could reasonably have been expected to upgrade have already been resubmitted by now. But that doesn't mean that older PCGS and NGC holder coins aren't still quite desirable. There are plenty of vintage NGC Fatty holders and PCGS Old Green holders that house really, really nice coins for their grade. In addition, many collectors feel that vintage holder coins have a better chance of getting CAC approval.
As a final bonus, resubmission upgrades remain a possibility in some niche numismatic markets that have languished since the turn of the millennium. So common-date Morgan silver dollars, Walking Liberty halves and classic U.S. commemorative halves might provide those with a keen eye the (admittedly slim) possibility of buying a legitimately under-graded coin, as long as you stick to lower priced examples. This is due to the fact that with these coin series, the value increase from moving, for instance, from MS-62 to MS-63 might not cover the third-party grading service's resubmission fee.
Consequently, PCGS Old Green holders and NGC Fatty holders often command 5% to 15% premiums over newer holder coins of the same type, date, grade and mint. The next logical step up the value ladder is getting a "green bean" CAC-stickered coin. But a CAC stickered specimen can set you back an additional 20% to 100% (!) over an identically graded non-CAC coin, depending on a multitude of different variables. Given the massive price differentials, a lot of value-conscious collectors and investors opt for coins in vintage holders instead.
PCGS Old Green Holder & NGC Fatty Holder Classic U.S. Commemorative Coins for Sale on eBay
Now for the caveats.
It is vitally important that you buy the coin, not the holder. An old holder is merely an indicator that a coin might be interesting. There are, without a doubt, over-graded, thoroughly ugly coins that reside in PCGS Old Green holders and vintage NGC Fatty holders. It is up to you to avoid these over-graded dogs yourself.
An unethical seller may try to distract you from a lower quality coin by emphasizing the fact that it is housed in a vintage holder. But that doesn't mean the coin is automatically good. The old holders simply give you a potential edge in the very competitive world of investment grade numismatics.
I would also like to warn you that PCGS has started to issue coins in "throwback" holders. These PCGS throwback or retro holders are new issues with "tribute" labels that are similar to those found in older holders. Happily, they all have a tell which allows for easy identification. Every PCGS throwback holder has "PCGS GEN X.X" in a shield printed on the rear label. If you see this, you know it is a new holder.
To the best of my knowledge, NGC has not issued any Fatty/Fattie holders since 1997.
Although they aren't a magic silver bullet, early PCGS Old Green holders and vintage NGC Fatty holders can be a great way for savvy coin investors to pick up solidly graded rare coins at a reasonable price.
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