Colour grading?

Very true.

What gets me is VAMS. I find it pretty ridiculous at what some "VAMS" go for.

I think VAMS were invented because Morgan Dollars are so boring and ugly, not to mention common as....."roaches" . It's an excuse to find something unique about them so prices can be driven up in some capacity, in an otherwise ho hum coin.

Same with "Monster Toners".

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

VAM's started, and continues, as a study of die marriages and the subsequent life of the die (very early, early, mid, late and very late die stage), like many other studies of different images. As with others some marriages and things like conditional rarity and letter clashes carry more premium.

 

Early in my collecting life, I used to be attracted by US coins. I think it was reading the discussions that John Anthony refers to that turned me off them. Now I have made an oath never to buy a US coin again, if it’s MS67 Red, AU58 Brown, or MS64 RB. Condition and price has become too important on that area, I think. But to each their own.

One of my remaining coins, a nice IH cent, I guess it’s RB?

 

I think you hit it spot on. Why else would so many crack open a MS62 BN slab and resend it through hoping for an upgrade to a higher $$$ grade. The coin stays the same color. Now I will get the complaints as I would feel the same way as to hoping for a better grade, but I have NEVER cracked one out and sent it to regrade or try another grading company based on Grade and/or color. I think ancients have mainly missed this, but I have seen several on the market that are TPGed and I predict it will gradually follow the general coin market habits. Since they were taken private last year, I expect their directions might change.

https://frontofficesports.com/collectors-universe-sale-finalized/
"
Collectors Universe and an investor group led by entrepreneur and sports card collector Nat Turner have come to an amended merger agreement following the initial announcement of a $700 million deal in late November 2020.

The new deal values Collectors Universe at approximately $853 million. The investor group — which includes D1 Capital partners and Steve Cohen’s family office Cohen Private Ventures — will acquire all of the company’s outstanding shares of common stock at a “best and final” offer of $92 per share in cash.

Collectors Universe has seen growth amid the pandemic as the trading card industry boomed.

• $30.8 million in revenue in its most recent quarter, up 52% year-over-year
• $7.8 million in operating income, an increase of 25%
• 130% jump in cards and autographs revenue, to $18.6 million "

Of course. IMO. Jim

 

The coin pictured below is about the strongest green color you'll find on a nummus.

 

Thats really all collecting. Even with ancients where yes the grade means a lot less, all of those things contribute to eye appeal which draws people to the coin and ultimately value.

Its not just US coins its world coins as well or more specifically non ancient coins and will continue to expand in the future. Even ancients which are the least beneficial to be graded aside from authenticity are seeing more and more grading.

 

Is putting a number/grade/colour to everything useful? Can't we trusted to buy what we like?

See this Mona Lisa painting? It's graded as an F-12, GREEN. Not the best condition, what a piece of junk, i think i'll pass on it. I want one that's at least MS-64 RED.

 

Honest to God, I found this one metal detecting a school one day.

 

Yes it is. It helps prevent dealers from taking advantage of people and makes it MUCH easier to sell something is someone chooses to

You can buy anything you want that you can afford. If it happens to be doctored or fake and you missed that.....

Completely irrelevant comparison

No ones forcing you to do anything. If you want graded stuff buy graded stuff. If you dont, dont.

You posted this in Ancients so it really shouldnt be a huge issue and really isnt very relevant to them.

 

Well, as us Romans say,
"De gustibus non est disputandum."
or...
About matters of taste, there can be no argument.

 

I prefer my bronze coins PATINATED!

 

The way they should be! The greener and browner the better!

 

I would agree with you, but then we’d both be wrong.

 

Yes, the sign of our times. The notion of stopping, looking (thinking), then crossing the road (acting rationally with humility) has been lost. Now, the common pattern is to just charge ahead regardless of oncoming traffic.

 

As another stated you will be better served listening to those individuals on CT and LEAVE FARCEBOOK. If you do not post what they want to hear it can’t possibly be correct.
Semper Fi

 

Here is a nice green patina on a nummus:



Constantius as Caesar
Antioch
29-27 mm. 9.68 grams.
FL VAL CONSTANTIVS NOB CAES
Є in right field
ANT • in exergue
RIC Antioch 59a "c. 304-305"

 

Don't worry be happy.

 

It's certainly your right and choice to be ignorant

 

I agree with the implication in the second quote that all collectors, either consciously or subconsciously, take a coin's "eye appeal" into their evaluation when considering whether or not to purchase a coin for their collection.

I also agree that U.S. coin collecting seems to be dominated by grade, and this is where I diverge from the hypothesis that ancient coin collecting differs from modern coin collecting only quantitatively (i.e., "grading" matters to ancient collectors as well but it's less emphasized) rather than qualitatively (i.e., grading of ancients is mostly a curiosity to true collectors rather than dabblers or speculators). My belief is that a U.S. coin collector would prefer a more highly graded coin over a lower-graded coin that might have more eye appeal to the collector, and this isn't true for most ancient coin collectors (as contrasted with speculators or dabblers).

Here's an example that illustrates why:

Consider these three Sikyon staters and my personal observations:



One of the most interesting aspects of this coin is the mythical Chimera beast -- with the body of a lion, a goat's head protruding from the body, and the tail ending in a serpent's head. For the ancient collector interested in this type of coin, these three typical specimens represent a choice that I believe no grading system can possibly encompass.

The leftmost coin (#1) is bright, well struck, reasonably well centered, but the serpent's head is off the flan. If you want a full chimera, this isn't the coin for you since you'll have to describe to your friends that the lion's tail ends with a snake's head. But it's still a fine coin.

The middle coin (#2) has all the features of the chimera fully on the flan, although it appears a little less bright, so it's a strong candidate.

The rightmost coin's (#3) obverse actually shows better detail in the goat's head and serpent's head, and the obverse is slightly sharper than the middle coin, but the lion's left rear paw is off the flan, and it's slightly darker.

So my thought is, how could a grading system possibly help you make a decision among these coins? Suppose coin 3 has a higher grade than coin 2, but you like brighter coins? Would it be wrong to choose coin 2? And if your budget can't stretch to a coin with the full serpent's tail on the flan, do you choose coin 1 since it's still a chimera and illustrates that mythical beast?

How could coin grades per se have any relevance to helping a collector make a decision among these coins?

 

Interesting! and very nice coins. Since I am very much a novice with ancients, my opinion isn't significant.....I just think "I like this one better than the rest" which I would pick the 3rd one irregardless what the grading indicated. It would be interesting if each was somehow presented with Fake commercial grading ( ancient grading numbers) , or another time the purchased price, to see if such factors do affect individuals in determining worth, as I believe they very likely do , Nice post , Jim