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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2448739, member: 19463&quot;]I&#039;m sorry I was unable to express myself clearly. By &#039;unique types&#039; I meant coin designs that have survived as only one specimen.&nbsp; Many specialists have a coin or two in this category and many that survive in small enough numbers that it is unlikely the two NGC graders would have ever touched one.&nbsp; Certainly their general expertise would make their opinion 99.9% valid but it is hardly like a series where every die ever used has been studied and recorded.&nbsp; I was&nbsp; not saying that it would be an easy task to be a &#039;guarantee worthy&#039; expert on US coins but only that it would be a thousand times (million?) harder to have that same level of familiarity with all the ancients.&nbsp; NGC does limit itself by not grading some groups of coins (Cast, most Indian for example) but even just Greek and Roman is a huge area of study that simply is not going to fit in a single lifetime.&nbsp; I am amazed at how good a job some of the better numismatists do in only fifty years or so of hard work.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I would love to know how many different types and how many specimens of each pass through the coin trade in any given time period.&nbsp; I wonder how often a dealer with 25 years experience sees a coin that has not crossed his path before.&nbsp; Of course a lot of that number depends on just how exact a match you require to be called &#039;same&#039;.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>This is an extremely good point.&nbsp; Thank you for bringing it out.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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