Slabbing advice

[mbarn]

Hi

I have been collecting for a while and would like to look at slabbing some of my collection. i would also be looking to buy coins with the aim of slabbing them. I haven't done this before any advice or help would be appreciated.

As a start :

Who is recommended to have the coins graded and slabbed?
How much does it cost?

What sort of coins should I target - pre-decimal or decimal? or is this irrelevant?

I have some mint Australian pennies i was looking to start with - i'll dig them out and post them here for comments as a start.

any other comments/tips/hints appreciated


Cheers

MB

[nealeffendi]

Walter at DrakeSterling can arrange to get your coins slabbed. His fees are reasonable (about $35 for most coins, more for the high priced coins). Or you can get membership with PCGS yourself and send coins off, only worth it if you have a few dozen coins worthy of slabbing as postage is a killer for small batches.
Coins are only worth slabbing if you really want them slabbed (for protection, to get them graded for sale, for a set registry) and they are only worth slabbing if they are decent grade and worth a few dollars (lots of people set lower limits of a coins value before they would consider slabbing it, I wouldn't slab any coin with a book value under $100 and others have a higher minimum).
Only consider problem free coins for slabbing (nothing cleaned, bent or otherwise less than desirable). With decimals you have the fact that there may be thousands of examples out there in rolls and folders that could grade higher than your coins so only perfect gems might be worth slabbing (unless of course they are rarities like the 2000 mule).