Break open the Slab on your ancient coin or not poll.

Keeping in mind that the slabbing companies do not actually guarantee authenticity -- although I would certainly trust the opinion of a company like NGC regarding an ancient coin -- there are quite a few extremely reputable, long-time coin dealers who are experts themselves on authenticity, and whose opinions I also trust. Which is why I try to buy my (unslabbed) coins only from such dealers, given that I don't necessarily trust my ability to detect anything but the most obvious kinds of fake ancient coins. Especially from a seller-provided photograph.

Also, buying through VCoins does give you the benefit of an authenticity guarantee.

 

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I still yet have to acquire my first slabbed piece but if it is anything like the filo, plastic or whatever the Proof Like sets come in, I wouldn’t be able to stand it! For me, collecting is not only visual but tactile. Being unable to feel your coin I think would be like stocking your fridge with plastic food! Stroking a slab reciting, “my precious” is for the confused, the actual coin on the other hand... but, that could be just me.

Protect your pieces yes but, having only half the experience of having it seems, wrong.

I voted you set it free especially if never intending to part with it.

 

I have a penchant for fondling my ancients with my greasy grubby hands every now and then. Some people are apalled, but I tell them that the coins were in the ground, in the ocean, or otherwise buried for 2000 years. My hands won't do more damage than nature already did

 

I keep everything. Tags, envelopes, import papers, return addresses, receipts, provenance info, sometimes I will pull the tire off the delivery truck.

If it is a tag or envelope, I will save it within my saflip. Other papers to my Ancients files.

 

No slabs. Remove from slabs, keep ticket. Won’t pay premium for slab. Don’t care about if others want mine slabbed, they can decide when I am dead, or if I would sell off my collection. I WOULD have @Barry Murphy & David Vagi authenticate mine if needed (been using David Sear), but would absolutely NOT want them entombed. It is fundamentally against my belief about coin Ancients collecting as a Hobby.

 

my thoughts. And some of your analogies, LOL.

 

Let it go!......

 

I have a few slabs I bought that way I haven't cracked out, and one athenian tet. I will probably crack out a couple of the gold, but one is a ostrogothic issue and do not mind the attribution, and the athenian tet is high grade and like others mentioned I would probably lose money cracking it out. I have about 8 others I can hold in my hand.

I really go out of my way to not buy them, since I do not feel like the work or possibility of damaging them to crack them out. Most of the time I simply do not bid.

 

My opinion would be a flip from CNG or other high end firm is more of a certainty of authenticity than a slab. The best ancient stabbing firm, NGC, does not guarantee their authenticity, you do know that right? Look it up.

The gold standard has always been a David Sear certificate, but a CNG or similar ticket is close.

 

I would agree sir Mr. Vagi and @Barry Murphy are outstanding numismatists. Nothing in my opinion about ancient slabs has ANYTHING to do with my very favorable opinions of those fine gentlemen. I used to buy at CICF from Mr. Vagi, and Mr Murphy has been a beacon of light for me in this hobby for 20+ years now. He, @dougsmit, Warren Esty, and many others I learned this fine hobby from back in the Moneta-l days.

 

I'm sure the NGC ancients people are busy enough not to need to expand what they do, but I think there would be a market for more people and companies to offer a service like what David Sear provides: to identify and authenticate (and perhaps also to grade) ancient coins without encasing them in a slab. A certificate reflecting such conclusions would obviously have to include photographs of the coin that were sufficiently detailed to tie that certificate to the specific coin, and preclude somebody switching coins on a potential buyer. A lot of people who hate slabs might be interested in that kind of service, and I don't know why more people don't provide it. (Yes, the kind of certificate I'm talking about could theoretically be faked, but, after all, so can a slab.)

Of course, when I buy from a reputable, well-known dealer (which I do for 99% of the ancient coins I buy), I always save to my computer, and print out, the dealer's photographs of the coin, which serve the same purpose for me.

 

Harlan J Berk started a "Verified" sricker scheme in 2018 which didn't involve a slab - https://coinweek.com/ancient-coins/hjbs-ancient-coin-verified-authenticity-program/

In fact, I'm sure there were threads on CoinTalk about it. I haven't heard anything about it more recently.

ATB,
Aidan.

 

I agree with most of the previously-mentioned reasons to crack out ancient coins from slabs. I've bought a few and cracked them all out. I try to avoid buying slabbed ancients because I don't want the bother of cracking them out and possibly damaging them (although I've done a few now and am pretty confident in my technique that I can avoid damage).

I find browsing slabbed ancients irritating. The slabs are so large that just viewing the thumbnails doesn't work, since the coins are such a small part of the image. Each slab image needs to be clicked and then enlarged, twice for each side, just to see that it's something I'm not interested in. The biggest slabbers of ancient coins are Heritage and GreatCollections, and it's so time consuming to view each coin that I usually don't bother.

Another thing I hate about slabbed ancients are the prongs that hold the coins in place. They interfere with the contours of the coin. Yet one of the primary charms of ancients are their irregular contours. I don't want prongs hiding part of the coin and obscuring the edge. Prongs are an aesthetic impairment.

Prongs on slabbed ancients are so egregiously distracting and unaesthetic that David Vagi, in his articles about ancients for Coin World, never illustrates them with images of slabbed coins. Always raw.

 

Sadly I would assume this same poll a decade from now would trend towards slabbing. But I might be thinking negatively.

 

Maybe. It gives many new collectors comfort. Nothing wrong with that. If it brings more people the joy of collecting ancients its fine.

Maybe in the future most ancients well over $1000 will be stabbed. Could be the future. Most of my items are below that, and I choose to be ignorantly blissful in my slab free life, but its my choice.

 

With your slabbed or unslabbed coins, you all remind me of my childhood readings...

 

Like a few of you, I've never bought a slabbed coin, but that may because I never really came across them in the formative years of my collecting Roman coins, starting in the early 80s. Only more recently have I transitioned into my collecting specialties of the Messapian mints of Magna Grecia and the coinage of Ostfriesland, Germany. I haven't really seen many slabs in those "fringe" collecting areas (except for maybe the coinage of Tarentum - again, I tend to gravitate towards the more unconventional issues of that mint), and find that most of these coins are distinct enough in style to see if they are real or fake (and yes, I have seen a few fakes in both areas). I still occasionally add to my Roman collection but it's usually more pedestrian grade coins from EBay and sometimes auctions, which are all non-slabbed. Lastly, like many, I like to enjoy these ancient wonders in hand, which really transmits that "time travel" experience I enjoy about our hobby the best. Holding a piece of genuine history and wondering who minted it or held it a few thousand years ago is absolutely priceless. I don't think that you would ever get the same experience holding a slab.