US Coins

Oversized PCGS slab from limited-edition series

By Paul Gilkes

Published: Jan 8, 2017, 7 AM

1849 Coronet gold $10 eagle is encapsulated in an oversized, limited-edition PCGS plastic holder. This holder type was used between 1992 and 1994, for just a few hundred coins.

Original images courtesy of Roger Bohn.

Each of these limited-edition slabs was also accompanied by a green storage pouch bearing the PCGS monogram.

Images courtesy of Roger Bohn.

Readers Ask column from Jan. 23, 2017, issue of Coin World:

I enjoyed the article in Coin World about fancy slabs. I have the coin and bag pictured. Do you know the year it was issued? Is it rare, as stated on the slab? What is its value? It’s the only one I’ve seen.

Roger Bohn / Address withheld

According to the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS.com), the slab is referred to as “The Regency Holder,” a premium holder used “for rare and important coins.”

The oversized holder with dark green background does not carry the PCGS number on the grading insert, but has the PCGS hologram on the reverse side. The holder was “limited in popularity due to awkward size” and “is infrequently seen today,” according to PCGS, which added, “It is estimated approximately 700 coins were put into Regency Holders, roughly half of them Israeli coins from the Danny Kaye collection. Scarce.”

The Regency Holder was only in use from 1992 through 1994.

While the holder itself is limited in number, the “rare” designation on the grading label for the 1849 Coronet gold $10 eagle in the holder refers to the Breen 6887 variety, as attributed in Walter Breen’s Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins. The coin is a double date variety. Parts of all four digits in the date show within and around the date. Part of a loop of an extra 9 shows through the left side of the circle of the 9. According to Breen, the obverse die later cracked through the first nine of 13 stars.

While Breen refers to the variety in his Complete Encyclopedia as “prohibitively rare,” U.S. gold coin specialist Doug Winter from Doug Winter Numismatics says “the variety is actually not that rare and sells for no real premium.” The rarity is the holder, which Winter says is usually far more in demand than the coin the holder contains.

Recorded sales at eBay show coins in Regency slabs have sold for significantly more than similarly graded coins in non-Regency holders.

PCGS founder David Hall was quoted in Coin World in 2013 stating that the oddly shaped Regency holders, often referred to as “coffins” in the hobby, were abandoned because of low demand.