Alexander III Drachm re-submission tale

What's most annoying about this is that you can go and buy coins from a published hoard relatively easily if you look around, especially coins from the era of the so-called seven hills or Colosseum hoards.

 

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There is a John Anthony Hoard, actually. It consists of about 50 rusty bottle caps that I found with my metal detector.

 

No! Put 10 of us round a table and give us a slab, somebody is going to get hurt with all those hammers, saws and other weapons of slab destruction going after just one coin.

I'm confused. Should I reprimand you for not extending a flowery welcome to a new poster or congratulate you for telling it like it is or at least as I see it.

Collectors do not like slabs. Speculators, investors and those who have no desire to learn anything about coins love them. When the pyramid topples, collectors will still collect. The others will be buying whatever the next flavor of the month might be. I may not live to see it but that's OK since all my slab free coins will be melted down and cast into an urn for my ashes. Yes, you can take them with you!

 

An urn? That's like what, 5% of your collection by mass? Can I have the rest?

 

I'll add you to the list. I believe your position is somewhere in the vicinity of my place on the British Royal Succession list.

 

Let's try a different frame work here. If you buy a coin for less than serious collectors think it's worth, then you can resell it and make money. That is true inside or outside a plastic tomb. If you are interested in making money on coins I would encourage you to study and learn instead of trying a scheme, in the long run only one avenue will consistently pay off.

 

Well, I would like to congratulate you on a financial windfall (if you ever decide to sell). I am not crazy about coins in slabs either modern or ancient (or in-between), but if you decide to liquidate it, it gets you a few extra bucks, which I don't think even the most numisnutso among us would turn their nose up at (OMG...ending a sentence with a preposition...where are the language cops at?). Let us see it when you get it back.

 

+1

FWIW, if I buy a coin in a slab it will probably just stay in the slab. If I get a raw ancient, it will probably just remain raw in my collection.

I used to crack ancient coins out of the slab but then I realized that it was not necessary unless I really wanted to enjoy it raw with other similar ancients.

I actually put an ancient back into its original slab in order to keep its high points protected from my constant handling of it. Protecting the high points is something that a slab can provide. This one is back in the slab for its protection:



I hope to see tequila Dave's photos when he receives the coin. I suspect everyone is anxious to see it.

 

Haha yes!

Even better, make the melted metal from the coins into an actual urn!

 

That's just sick
@dougsmit At least don't melt your Valentinian II Siliqua!

 

OP, I imagine there is money to be made taking ancient coins, getting them slabbed, and selling on places like HA where the buyers don't know what they are doing. I imagine many dealers are currently doing just that. They take "pretty", common ancient coins and have them slabbed and sold on HA. If that is what can make you money, I have no problem with it. If I happen to buy one I will only at a discount and will crack it out, but if others want to overpay for a slab that doesn't authenticate the coin and use the wrong grading scale, who am I to judge?

 

This has been an enjoyable thread, as I knew it would be once I read the OP posting. No need for me to chime in. Most know how I feel.

Exactly!

 

The same pattern is occurring with high end world coins to some extent, and even there many world collectors are anti-slab. For US and world coins, the slabbing gives you authenticity, a market respected grade, and protection for delicate surfaces. I haven't seen it catch on yet with ancients, and I don't expect it to, because the slabbing for ancients provides neither authentication nor a respected grade. As such you get little more than protection for the coin, and most ancients don't need it. Perhaps some day this will change, but I don't see it happening any time soon.

 

I sure hope you're right!

 

I'm going to go against the prevailing grain here, at least a little bit, and defend tequilaDave's orientation toward pursuing ancient coins as a business opportunity to buy and sell slabbed coins for a profit. This is a perfectly understandable orientation, given that he purchased an ancient coin on a whim and it appears that he can now resell it at a profit, despite having limited or no knowledge about ancient coins (either at the time he purchased the original, or now that he's trying to sell it).

In my view, this site just isn't the place to get his question answered; there is a clash between the OP's particular interest and the interests of the overwhelming number of collectors on this site. Namely, as collectors of ancients, we're focused on things other than finding business opportunities for possibly undervalued, slabbed coins. Because of this, most of us have little if any experience with which to answer his question ("My question is this - how unusual is it for an ancient graded by a third tier grading company to jump a solid 2+ grades?"). I know I certainly don't have that experience, nor do most others here except maybe those on this site who also spend time as dealers of ancient coins.

I think a better response is that, as serious collectors of ancients, we can't really answer his question in any depth, for one or all of the following reasons:

1. The "AU *" grade is not something that any of us on this site use to grade ancients.

2. The vast majority of us do not, and would not buy a slabbed coin except under extreme duress, and thus slabs add no value in our evaluation of ancient coins.

3. Evaluation of an ancient coin's value to a serious collector would require at least a high-quality picture, but more likely an evaluation of the coin in hand.

4. Evaluation of an ancient coin's value to a casual collector who has limited or little knowledge of ancients is, again, not really something any of us can authoritatively claim to be able to provide.

Rather than castigating the OP for his question, I personally would prefer to respond that for the most part, I (we?) can't really provide any helpful information for him since that's outside our individual or collective orientation toward ancient coin collecting.

 

We should all pool some denarii together and send them to NGC to be labeled as the "Augustus Hoard, personally owned by Emperor Augustus.” After all, Augustus was a numismatist, and he is not around to contradict our baseless assertions that these are his coins. I'd love to see if NGC is disreputable enough to go along with that stuff. After all, they created the Coliseum Hoard and Seven Hills Hoard out of thin air.

I suspect for the right kind of money you can get NGC to put anything on the label. If NGC goes along with it, can expose them and show the joke ancient coin slabbing really is, and can hold it over their heads.

 

I agree. For the most part, it is akin to offering a job in an abattoir to a vegetarian.

 

Vegetarians? What, some people don't eat tasty animals?

 

Some don't! Some don't eat eggs either (vegans) and some (Janes I think) don't eat onions or garlic. I would starve to death

 

Nope, I have already claimed to be your Grandson...