COOL COIN SHOWCASE, #3, February 19, 2026
- desertmoonnm
- Feb 19
- 5 min read
Why Collect Coins in Old Holders
Hi Folks,
We are offering 5 fresh gold examples in Old Green Holders (OGH). All 5 are Gen 3.1 Holders that were used from 1993 to 1998 by PCGS. That means any coins preserved in them were put in these holders from 28 to 33 years ago. Earlier OGHs and Rattlers were used from the beginning of PCGS in 1986 to 1993. Coins in these holders, and also NGC’s Fatty’s, and ANACS small white Soap Box Holders, are highly collectible and oft times carry a premium over the same/similar coins in more recent holders. The open question then is, why?
Well first, one reason is history and nostalgia. Obtaining older, and different types of holders is a popular way to collect. I have had collectors contact me and let me know they are looking for a particular type of Fatty, Rattler, or a specific PCGS Gen holder to collect so look out for them. I suspect that as CAC ages/evolve, this will also be the case for their holders. They are already on their Gen 2 holder, despite only operating as a third-party grading company since 2023. Some collectors love the history of slabs, and are of course, nostalgic for the old days. I was not completely privy to how serious the slab collecting activities were until I auctioned off my Mercury Dime collection last year at Great Collections. In that group of 57 Mercs, was this lovely example I paid $28 for it in 2018 as part of a group of 3 Mercury Dimes in Rattlers at GC:
Sure it is a nice looking Mercury dime, common, in an old Rattler from 1986, and PCGS retail guide price in MS65 is $55. Since it was in a Rattler, I was expecting the final auction price with BP to be around that retail guide price. I had another 12 common Mercury dime Rattlers and OGH’s in the auction, only 3 with CAC stickers, and they seemed to be bid up to retail pricing or just a touch more. The items were listed on GC 3 weeks prior to the auction close on a Sunday. By the end of the 2nd week of listing, this 1940-S jumped to $333! The rest of the common date Rattlers in that group were creeping up, generally to $10 to $20 with the hope they would reach about retail pricing of about $50-60 (which they ultimately did), with the CACed examples going for about double retail guide. So as I looked in on what was being bid on this, I was thinking, hold on a minute, why is this one going crazy in price? I first looked to see if this was a special variety. I blew up my images at home and compared them with Cherrypicker’s and other variety sources to see if this was a special one. Nope. So I just kept watching and wondering what the heck was going on. With one week left I kept an eye on it and it just kept going up up up. By Tuesday it went to $500, then $800, I thought, this is insane. By Sunday, it crept to $825, then just about 3 hours before auction close, $1100! Final bid was $1150. Whew!
So I started to ask around. Some collectors in the know told me, hey look at that serial number – the 108s were the first slabbed at PCGS, not many around now, they are highly sough after. Well, yes, apparently that is the case. Can’t say I am complaining with this one for sure.
So slab collecting from the perspective of history and nostalgia are a big deal, I just did not know that.
Second, my interest in older holders is because the coin has been sitting in the same holder for many decades. If it still looks great and hasn’t degraded with spots, ugly toning, or all kinds of things that can happen during storage or by coin doctors prior to the coin being slabbed, then one can be fairly confident that the look one sees now, is pretty stable. If it is nice, then the risk is small of it turning in the decades old slab. That alone carries a premium, insurance for sure.
Third, some, and maybe many, of the old-holdered coins are strongly undergraded by the standards applied today. If you can find these without a CAC Gold Sticker, it can be a big return. Occaisionally I have been lucky. Like the 1841-D Quarter Eagle I bought from a prominent Dealer in 2011 in an OGH in AU50. Said Dealer told me he believed it was undergraded, it came to him with no sticker and he offered to send it in for me. A week later he alerted me that my coin was being shipped to me from CAC and that I would be pleased. So I thought – cool it got a green sticker as the Dealer believed it would. When I opened the package, what is this, the sticker is gold and there is a little card that says Congrats this is CAC gold which means it exceeds our standards for the grade. Grading that coin using PGCS Photograde online it is a AU55+ every day of the week. I sold it back to the Dealer in 2019 and now it is in a friends collection which is cool. Many examples of strongly undergraded coins reside in the older holders. Many have been cracked out and attempted, and many succeeding, to being upgraded. But some are still out there.
But not all old holders come with great coins. As mentioned some of these old holders are not sealed as well as the present ones, and the environment over the decades can affect them. Not all coins in old holders were undergraded by current standards. And some were subjected to coin doctoring prior to holdering and can turn in the holder. In my view given these considerations, it is best to buy coins in old holders that have been reviewed and accepted by CAC, or to do a very careful examination in hand for one without a sticker, prior to making a decision on buying it. Given their standards on surface quality, it is a nice bonus when an old holder has a green or even gold sticker on it.
As one example of why one needs to be careful about old holders that are not CACed. I recently watched a video by a dealer who had quite a few silver coins in Rattlers. Sadly nearly all of them came back with the infamous red sticker with John Albanese writing on it explaining why each did not CAC. In this case, most of the them had ‘PVC’ on that red sticker. A couple of them had ‘Old Cleaning’ which I have seen many times on my submissions. So again, even though the old holders have cachet in our world, one has to be as careful in evaluating these coins just like one does with coins in more modern holders.
In summary though, older holdered coins without problems, because of their history, stability, and potential for being strong for the grade and/or undergraded, offer tremendous opportunities in our collecting and for these reasons can typically carry a premium relative to coins in younger holders. But as always Caveat Emptor and do your homework.
Well after all of that, we have 5 new gold coins to offer in Gen 3.1 OGHs, including a key date of one series. Please have a look and thanks for reading and visiting our website!
As always, please contact us through desertmoonnm@yahoo.com if you have an interest in any of our coins.
Best, DM
Click on the images to go to the listing for each coin below.
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