I finally got around to cutting Philip I out of his coffin as discussed here https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ancients-new-pick-ups-from-manchester-nh-show.254151/
Why do you guys enjoy keeping coins in slabs? In the case of Ancients, there is no harm in handling since all have been either circulated, found in the dirt or both.
Different strokes for different folks; the coins are theirs to do with as they please. With that said, I'm not sure how much "circulation" wear such coins could possibly receive these days...
In the past 1900 years or so this coin has been circulated for commerce, buried for safe keeping (perhaps several times), lost, encrusted, cleaned, and sold to who knows how many collectors over the years, and you think I will add significant wear by removing it from its coffin and putting it in a flip with all my other ancient coins?
Now it can breath. Since you can't really handle the newer coins why not handle an older coin? Its pretty neat to be holding a piece of history in your hands.
Agreed. I do understand with modern coins you do not want to touch them for fear of contamination. However, with Ancients, like ziggy9 said, there is not much more you can do to harm them. And, like icerain said it's pretty neat holding history in your hand.
Simple handling from a collector who knows what they're doing is unlikely to impart any perceptible amount of wear on an ancient coin. I've seen many dealers rub their fingers on both sides of coins, handling them in ways which make me cringe, but except for some very specific cases (like extremely high grade ancient gold), light handling is not going to make a difference.
