For those who do not know me, I am the President of the SlabFree Chapter of the CC & GTCC.

I do not collect silver strikes, I have one or two around which I generally trade for chips.

Though I frequently post on the Chip Board, this will be my first post here. I have come here to read what is going on for some time.

As soon as I saw the Original Post I knew that this discussion would turn to slabbing. Not because their is similarity between encasing a strike in an airtite and slabbing it (some in this conversation and jumped on that red herring).

Actually the reason that I knew the direction this thread would take, is that the original post suggested that merely removing a strike from its airtite devalued the strike.

The vast majority of chip collectors deal with the issue of flaws as follows: If you can readily see a flaw, it is flawed. If you can not readily see flaw it is not flawed.

Coin collectors however are concerned with aspects of condition that require experts with magnifiers to see.

The question is where do strike collectors fall in this spectrum?

Although Strike might appear to be more like coins than chips, it appears that Strike Collectors do not share the same concern for minutae that coin collectors do.

I would note that in an earlier post by TOKENLUVER (who is putting up a subtle defense of slabbing) where he says "Few have shown the astute point of view to even recognize condition unless there is a very visible flaw."

Now what he is doing here is supporting the claim for the need for slabbing by declaring the importance of non-visible flaws in the value of a strike, calling it an astute observation. But interestingly his own words defeat his argument. You see he readily admits that "Few" have any concern for non-visible flaws.

Now if the collectors are not concerned about non-visible flaws, then the existence of non-visible flaws will not devalue the strike in the collectors market.

Where his argument turns to the not so subtle is where he tries to mischaracterize the words of Archie Black.

Archie points out the expense of tooling up to creat slabs as a word of caution. He warns that the way to prevent slabbing is by show that there is no demand.

Archie was present at the seminar at the last convention when the representative of Collectors Universe told us that they would accept a significant loss in moving into a new area.

But TOKENLUVER mischaracterizes Archie as saying that slabbing is a non-issue. Archie did not say that he said "I'm very dismayed to read that slabbing silver strikes has even been thought of and introduced into this thread regarding airtite cases" -- notice he is dismayed.

TOKENLUVER has said :"I challenge anyone to prove it has adversely affected any hobby. Coin collecting is doing very well thank you."

Is it really, then why is it that many FORMER coin collectors and card collectors have come to me and told me how slabbing drove them from the hobbies, how it made collecting to expensive for the typical collector amd how it brought in speculators who had no interest in the collectibles except as investments. Heck the representative from Collectors Universe wouldn't even call coin collecting a hobby, he called it an industry.

If you Silver Strikers want a hobby, then say no to slabbing. Chip Collectors are proving that that we can stop the spread of this through education and boycotts.

On the other hand, if you want an industry then join TOKENLUVER and stand by while the slabbers move into your hobby, and they will come if you let them. After all Strikes are much more like coins then chips are.

Those who are interested in the Slabfree Chapter will find a link to our home page at www.slabfree.com