It is widely believed that coins in original PCGS Holders and NGC Holders are worth more today because they were “conservatively graded” or “under graded” decades ago. Hence, those same coins, in original holders, would grade higher today than they did decades ago. The truth is, across any generation of grading you can find coins “under graded” or “over graded” but what about the Coin Holders?
The slab the coin is in can be worth much more than the coin itself. Here are the top 5 Rarest Graded Coin Holders that you should be looking out for when searching for your next coin acquisition.
PCGS Doily Coin Holder
These were produced from September to October of 1989. This is when the coin grading companies first started seeing their slabs be counterfeit. PCGS reacted quickly to try and protect their brand, so they introduced the Doily Holder.
This holder has a plastic collar surrounding the slab which forms a raised lip that allows slabs to stack and interlock. It’s known as the “Doily Holder” due to its round lacy design. It featured a new label that had a fine barcode printed that they did not believe could be replicated. The label of the coin also featured a white stripe where the barcode was printed. This is also the first time a hologram was used on the back of the holder.
However, the label design itself was not very popular and PCGS soon came out with the 2.1A and 2.1B version. Which featured an all-green label (no white stripe) and kept the barcode.
PCGS Doily Coin Holder Approximate Premium is: $150-$300
NGC White Label Coin Holder
Spoiler Alert – This is not the first NGC Holder (Keep Reading).
This is the second generation of NGC Coin Holders. This coin holder featured a white insert with a white label and an embossed gold logo on the backside of the coin holder. It was in production for about a month in November/December of 1987. Immediately following the Generation 2.0 came the Generation 2.1 (which is also very rare) but very shortly discontinued making this style as well, due to the white label blending in with the white insert. NGC introduced the Generation 3.0 in December of 1987 which featured a brown or green border around the outside of the white label.
NGC White Label Coin Holder Approximate Premium is: $200-$300
PCGS Regency Coin Holder
PCGS made only about 700 of the oversized green PCGS Regency Coin Holder – these surely are not easy to find. These were offered by PCGS from 1992 to 1995 at a significant extra cost. Due to the additional cost of a Regency holder, the coins that found their way in to one of these holders were often very expensive. Which makes it difficult to determine exactly that the premium for this slab really is.
This premium slab was large, green and had a large white label. The submitter was allowed to customize their slab by adding a couple lines of text if they want to. The Regency Coin Holder originally came in a nice green velour drawstring bag. The Danny Kaye Estate Regency Slab also came in a green velour coated case, with his picture and a bronze plaque (“Box and Papers”).
As I mentioned there were about 700 of these premium holders produced and more than half of them encased Israeli coins from the Danny Kaye Estate. Danny Kaye received 1,000 Israeli coins by the Israeli government for his work with UNICEF. In 1995, dealer Randy Karlin, submitted 363 of the 1,000 coins to PCGS to be slabbed in the Regency Holder. You will notice that the designation on these Danny Kaye Estate coins were marked as “specimen”. That is because the Israeli government used proof dies in the production process even though the coins were uncirculated.
Ultimately the Regency Slab proved to be unpopular due to cost and the large size of the holder. They were more difficult to store and did not fit in a typical PCGS slab box.
PCGS Regency Coin Holder Approximate Premium is: $800-$1,000
PCGS White Label Coin Holder
The PCGS White Label Coin holder is the First Generation 1.0 slab for PCGS. It was originally used for only a few days in February 1986 when the company started. This first generation is a 2 piece “Rattler” holder that features a flat white label and crude dot matrix printing. The key difference between the 1.0 and the 1.1 is the quality of the dot matrix printing. It is believed that approximately 1,000 coins were slabbed in this style holder and the beginning serial number was #108001. Current known survivors are at 35.
PCGS White Label Coin Holder Approximate Premium is: $900-$1,100
Black NGC Coin Holder
The coin holder that is most coveted by coin collectors and slab collectors is the Black NGC Coin Holder. This is First Generation 1.0 for NGC and was produced from September 1987 to November of 1987, when the company first started. This holder encapsulates the coin in a black insert with a white label on the front and the back and has no hologram.
The reason for the switch from a black insert to a white insert is probably due to the color of darker coins and heavily circulated silver coins that tended to just blend into the insert. A bright gold coin or silver coin really pops against the black contrast.
At present time there are 42 known NGC Black Coin Holders, making this extremely rare.
Black NGC Coin Holder Approximate Premium is: $1,000-1,200+
Conclusion
As a coin collector It may seem strange to buy a coin holder instead of a coin but based on the values of the above coin holders how could you not start collecting some rare graded coin holders?
So, remember next time you are looking at coins, the coin holder may be more valuable than the coin it holds!
