Warning: Coin "Slabbing" Robs Collectors of their Soul: Part 2.

True collectors are delusional. They believe in the supernatural. Indeed, they seek magic and create new worlds.

   They have no need for condition grades.

   Why? Because they know – very well – what they want. They are home-schooled in the science of wear and tear. They look at coins, not the holder. And, they develop a keen sense of what they want.

True collectors – particularly the necromancers – believe that coins are steeped in history. They delight in contagion – that is to say, they believe that a coin touched by a colonist or patriot or (insert any dead person) is forever changed.

Free Me! Touch Me!

   Yes, this is an irrational stance. The frontal lobes must go offline. Dopamine – the juice that fuels the supernatural – flows uninhibited. It feels good to touch the past.

This is what necromancy is all about.

Condition grades – and all the silly codes such as F12, VF30, XF45 – are just shorthand for describing something that you cannot see. It is marketplace language for dealers and buyers. But once the coin is in hand, the terms are no longer useful.

   Yet, some so-called collectors cannot let go. They boast: “My coin grades VF, and I only paid a F price for it.” This is a bad sign. All you can do is pray for him, for he has lost his soul.

And for those blinded by the Cult of Mint State Coins, there is little hope. They have erased history with an obsession for blemishes. The press calls them heroes when they flash a MS-67 slab. “What an accomplishment,” they say.

Nothing has been accomplished.

Concerns about grading erode the collecting experience in other ways too. It creates anxiety. Did I pay too much? Was it a good buy? Oh, give that man a Xanax!

We also see symptoms exacerbated by slabs. Some so-called collectors agonize about whether to keep a newly acquired coin in the slab or to break it out. They are afraid to break it out – their brows are furrowed (and they die with deeply-lined foreheads). So sad that they have allowed the marketplace to highjack their collecting experience. If you cannot touch it, then why possess it?

And so, we come full circle, back to the supernatural. The true collector of old things is engaging in magic. He or she is creating history. There is no room for the collector-investor in this space. No room at all. Hence, grading coins by the alchemy of combining luster, strike, wear, and hits to arrive at some number makes no sense.

It just creates anxiety and a false sense of accomplishment.