How does this grading nonsense work and who falls for it. This perfectly reasonable NewStyle from a perfectly respectable company is on eBay and the grading looks mysterious-at least to me. This coin about 40 years ago would be good fine but now is VF with 5/5 perfect strike and 4/5 excellent surfaces. I mean the dies were quite obviously worn and the coin has a lot of honest wear . Maybe the slave didn't hesitate too much as he wacked it but so what when the rest is imperfect? The surface is not bad but obviously not that good either. It is not a particularly artistic work neither, the owl is not too convincing and the Twins are perfunctory at the most. You cannot even read the amphora month-it's too worn either on the die or due to circulation-how can you tell?
I think the answer is «gradeflation». 40 years ago, EF was the top grade, if I’m correct, unless the coin was special enough to get a Fleur de Coin. When the AU grades and MS grades came in, that had consequences for the whole grading scale. And, of course, there’s more money for the industry to be made with higher grades. It’s more tempting to submit the coin if there’s a VF or EF to be had, than a simple F+ As for strike/surface, you know far more than me. I could see it downgraded to 4/5 and 3/5, but I’m not sure what the criteria are, really.
This is my Twins, well worn but I can tell that the original strike was better and more artistic, the Twins themselves are much better rendered and complete and it has a legible 2nd control. So, quite well centred...VF/good VF ( 40 +yrs ago Good/Fine) Strike 3/5 Surface 5/5? For the observant the seller has also a Eagle on Thunderbolt and a Tripod for sale..these are typical coins that are of the "over-represented" NewStyles found in Balkan coin hoards- the one missing being Prow. PS My coin cost inc. s & h £155
5/5 doesn't mean "perfect strike". It means top 80% of strikes for New Style tets. This coin is centered, and fully struck, which is saying a lot for New Style!
I've noticed "grade inflation" as well since I re-started in the hobby back in 2017. I did have one FDC coin in my earlier collection (ant of Phillip the Arab graded by Frank L. Kovacs) but that was it. Now it seems that even mushy strikes and wear can occur on the EF examples.
Forty years ago, the majority of dealers and collectors were using European grading standards for ancient coins, which have always been stricter than American standards. NGC Ancients made a conscious decision to apply looser American standards. This 'loosening' is compounded by the separation of strike and surface as independent considerations rather than factors in a net grade. For better or worse, the genie is out of the bottle.
That new Athens Tet seems like a generous grade . Below is a Greek Tet I sold at a Heritage auction at least 5 years ago. The same coin before slabbing.
Grades, and in particular NGC grades, strike numbers, and surface numbers are a way to communicate something about coins that I call "condition," which is highly, but not perfectly, correlated with desirability of examples of that type. In my opinion the NGC description of the OP coin is just right. It brings that quality of coin to mind. Similarly, I think the NGC description of Al's coin is just right. Keep in mind that 5/5 is not "perfect", rather the top 20% (I think Ed meant to say "top 20%," not "top 80%"). Some "Strike: 5/5" coins are much better than others, especially because the last tiny bit of perfection matters a lot in coin prices. You can understand why Al's nice coin got a 4/5 for surface, because the surface could be better. I think NGC's standards are pretty consistent, which makes them understandable. If you wish that NGC's standards were somehow different, I think you just need to grasp their language. (By the way, I can think of ways that the old standards failed to describe the conditions of some coins.) Personally, I sigh when someone writes they are unhappy with the grades and numbers assigned to a coin. To me that suggests they care more about the grade than the coin. The coin is what it is. Look at the coin. It doesn't become something else when NGC rates it on three scales. I hate to think that ancient-coin collectors will pay more attention to NGC ratings than they do to the coin, but it is beginning to happen. I am disappointed because discussing the subject means collectors will begin to collect ratings instead of collecting coins. It happened in US coins. US-coin collecting is not better for it. Maybe US-coin investing is, but collecting for enjoyment is not. If a collector displays more concern for the grade of their coin than they do for the history of their coin, then they are on the road to becoming an investor. Resist the trend. Be brave. Collect coins and not grades.
The one thing NGC brings to the table is some form of uniformity in grading that didn't exist before. The addition of Strike & Surface ratings are very helpful too. In the past dealers could grade a coin anything they wanted to, which still goes on today. One dealer's "VF" is another's "Ex F" without regard to Strike & Surface quality. How NGC graded coins interact to market prices is a totally different matter, & all the complaining from "old time" collectors won't change anything .
"Keep in mind that 5/5 is not "perfect", rather the top 20% (I think Ed meant to say "top 20%," not "top 80%")." @Valentinian How do they know it's in the top 20%? Top 20% of what? How is that determined? That coin isn't totally identifiable Thompson obverse T486 but with an illegible amphora letter anymore is not likely. D'oh I just don't get it!
Yes, I meant to say "top 20% (80% percentile)" but I screwed it up. The NGC Ancients literature says that the x/5 numbers represent percentiles. However, it isn't true. For example less than 1% of the coins graded are 1/5. That might make sense for common coins (few submit dog coins) but for great rarities we expect nearly 20% of the coins being 1/5. Barry Murphy gave a better answer for what the x/5 numbers mean in https://www.cointalk.com/threads/qu...score-in-ngc-scale.339959/page-2#post-3565478 I did a blog post five years ago some of you might find interesting https://digitalhn.blogspot.com/2015/10/grading-parthian-coins.html I searched for a particular Parthian coin, the one cataloged as "Sellwood 33", and made a chart just showing the high point on this coin, the cheek strap, along with the grade the dealer gave it. I encourage everyone interested in grading to repeat the exercise for a coin type you know. How do different dealers and services grade the same exact type?
