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.
I'm going to mostly copy-paste @ToughCOINS comments: Even though I know nothing about them, I can certainly appreciate them for the artistry, history, cool-factor. Personally, I would have slabbed them too.
Very nice coins but I do not see the point of slabbing ancients- I have removed many coins from slabs, and have seen MANY where the price of the slab greatly exceeded the price of the coins. Plus I have never found the grading all that accurate on many of these or even that relevant for ancient coins. I would have taken the cost to slab and put it toward buying another coin. But the opinion is purely subjective again very nice coins!
Both look awesome. Definitely won on the first one with the 5/5 subs. Admittedly I like my ancients slabbed too. I like the look of them and the info on the labels. Sometimes the labels can help make them more attractive IMO. I keep them in a Lighthouse binder for slabs so I can see them easily. I like the info included with the expanded grading. Yes you can add that to flips and I have on some that I won't get graded. But my denarii set is graded along with a few important others. You can enjoy both graded and non-graded versions. The wait for ancient grading at NGC is up to 180 (business) days now after they receive. Not including holidays. This means if you got an order to them this coming Monday, you shouldn't expect to see it back until June 2027. And it costs $60 a piece for this service now. I don't know why it never slows down. The waits only get worse. I dropped off four at central states at the end of April. They were 80 days out at that time. They've been scheduled for grading for months. I finally stopped checking. I don't know when I'll see them again. One day I'll be surprised to get them in the mail. Sometimes all but forget that they're out. Other people must also like ancients graded or it wouldn't be this ridiculous.
