After carefull thought, I have come to the realization that slabbing is not all bad. First, the coins are authenticated/ have all defects like tooling/ cleaning/ hairlines/ etc. listed on slab/ so to avoid these coins. Second/ they are safely set in a holder/ no exposure to the elements/ handling/ any accidental damage. So, your MS-66 1812-A Napoleon AV 20 Francs will forever stay a perfect 66 However, the grading is a little lax....esp. for hammered coinage/ some MS-63/64 example show wear from handling in past. John
After carefull thought, I have come to the realization that slabbing is not all bad. First, the coins are authenticated/ have all defects like tooling/ cleaning/ hairlines/ etc. listed on slab/ so to avoid these coins. Second/ they are safely set in a holder/ no exposure to the elements/ handling/ any accidental damage. So, your MS-66 1812-A Napoleon AV 20 Francs will forever stay a perfect 66 However, the grading is a little lax....esp. for hammered coinage/ some MS-63/64 example show wear from handling in past. John
On ancient coins NGC doesn't guarantee authenticity but I believe all the major graders do for World and US.
You are correct! I sent this German Taler to NGC.. It belonged to my dad who passed away.. I don't care for the Details Grade.. It is still special to me!!!
However, it should have read.... Frankfurt/ Free City It was an "Imperial City" when under the rule of the Holy Roman Emperor/Empress in Vienna. By 1866 it was a "Freistadt" with the Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt. I have a early dated 1497 Goldgulden from there/ when it was ruled by Maximilian I Holy Roman Emperor.
For those reasons I like slabs, though I use my own eyes too as none are infallible. Also, though they are protective, they are not airtites, so I keep mine in additional protection (Intercept bags/boxes). Minor peeve though, I dislike the newer NGC labels are left justified. When putting a label (which I infrequently do) onto a group shot it doesn't look as good as the center aligned ones. (edited to correct spelling...)
I would also add that their descriptive labels should have more details about Mints/ Rulers/ etc. This is esp. true for Indian Princely States/ Sultanates....
I agree that would be nice, if difficult to implement in any consistent fashion. The information on the labels is often too sparse. PCGS in particular likes to abbreviate, even when they don't have to and there is room for enough characters to spell something out all the way on the label. I don't mean to suggest that the grading services should add a paragraph, or even as much as @panzerman is suggesting, and I see why they would need to keep things short and concise, but at least cover the basics (like spelling out the denomination). I will say that NGC Ancients does a pretty good job of fitting a lot of info on their labels. (Let's not start a contentious discussion of how accurate that information is or isn't- I'm just referring to the use of label space, here.)
For the most part, you're right. However, I would offer this "warning", and I'm using quotes around that word because the word is accurate in this context but also a bit too severe - but there just isn't any other word that coveys the meaning that needs to be conveyed. The warning is this, you collect world coinage, a good bit of it expensive world coinage. And besides grades, if the TPGs have one major weakness when it comes to slabbing world coins - it is authentication. Now the problem isn't rampant by any means, but they do make mistakes and slab coins as genuine when they are counterfeits. And with some coins in particular they do this far more often than they do with other coins. So keep in mind, when you are buying world coins, slabbed, you yourself need to know your coins ! Because the TPGs don't always.
I agree about more info, I would also like to see them list weight in grams like some of the Italian versions of slabs use
I used to buy raw coins but more recently have been buying mainly slabbed coins. Yes its in a coffin and slabbing does not guarantee authenticity (albeit very very rare) but then if one buys online, who can guarantee authenticity based on sellers’ photos. Moreover, many reputable auction houses will generally describe a coin as Extremely Fine but ‘forget’ to mention a huge scratch or hairlines which have been masked through clever lighting during photography. Add to that the fact that slabbed coins will invariably achieve higher prices should one wish to sell, makes a strong argument for slabbed coins IMHO!!!
Besides the above-mentioned benefits, reputable slabs also provide liquidity. It's much easier to sell a high-dollar coin that has been independently assessed and evaluated than it is to sell a high-dollar raw coin. For example, I'm looking at buying an Ethiopian coin right now - I don't really know much about Ethiopian coinage, but the design looks cool. I'm much more willing to buy one that has been authenticated, because I trust the company (and rely on their guarantee, if necessary).
