Both coins graded out as I expected them to. The Roman Republican denarius disappointingly did not get its John Quincy Adams collection pedigree listed on the label as I’d hoped, but NGC gave me a satisfactory explanation why not. And it wasn’t because the pedigree is false, but rather because the coin was not illustrated in the 1971 sale catalog of the Stacks’ Massachusetts Historical Society sale it came from. (I do have the original auction lot tag.) And it got perfect strike and surface ratings. As mentioned in an earlier thread, I waited 13 years for a chance to buy this coin. The Hadrian denarius graded out Choice XF, which I mostly expected. I was hoping for a shot at AU, but not holding my breath there. It actually looked super nice in hand (and it is) in the quickie handheld cellphone photo I took the day I submitted it at the FUN show in January. @Randy Abercrombie just unexpectedly gave me this coin one day last year. It’s one of my most favorite “gift” coins for a very long time.
Even though I know nothing about them, Rob, I can certainly appreciate them for the artistry and quality of manufacture and preservation.
So… was it worth the hassle and the considerable expense and the eight month wait, to slab these? Meh. Um… Kind of? I know most anti-slab traditionalists would say “Absolutely not! It’s stupid, and a waste of money!” But my mileage varies somewhat. I see both sides of the “slabbed Ancients” debate, and still mostly tend to come down on the “pro-“ rather than the “anti-“ side… if only just barely. Besides, the rest of my collection is slabbed, so my Ancients get the treatment, too. But don’t think I haven’t had some doubts along the way, particularly when this last time took eight months. And though I grossly overspent on slabbing by sending these off by themselves in a two-coin submission, if I consider the good prices I acquired the coins for, that all washes out. So … yeah. I reckon it was worth it in the long run.
Nice! Too bad about the JQA provenance not being included. If I were you, I'd look into printing up a nice sticker label giving the provenance and sticking it on the slab. It's too good to not include somewhere!
I have waited five months before. Never eight. Apparently their backlog has gotten worse. And to be fair, Ancients do take longer for them to research. (But yeah… eight months was excessive.)
You're in the majority. I'm part of the minority. Slabbing ancients has both advantages and disadvantages. For my personal style of collecting, the former slightly outweigh the latter.
