Buy the coin not the slab

This sort of ridiculous boner used to occur often enough that NGC grading of ancients was a laughing-stock--confusing Elagabalus and Caracalla was typical--but obviously David Vagi would never make this mistake in a trillion years, not even as a typo. Note that this doesn't use his 1-5 strike/surface grading system either. I very much wish Vagi hadn't lent his considerable expertise and well-earned reputation to NGS slabbing, but he really does take his job seriously and does it well. I think this slab must predate David's arrival at NGC, unless, unbeknownst to me they've established a sort of parallel system outside his control or oversight for bulk submissions like this so-called "Colosseum Hoard." There's no such hoard; that's just a telemarketer's invention. The whole things smacks of snake-oil, greed and ineptitude, unfortunately enabled by NGC.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I've seen these "Colosseum Hoard" slabs floating around for about a year now. Are we certain there is no such thing? I for one tried searching for such a hoard to no avail. If it's true that no such hoard exists, then NGC has crossed over the line of dubious practices such as over-grading into downright fabrication.

 

NGC is a joke as we all know. They still make horrible mistakes, which end up costing all of us in terms of money, reputation, seriousness, etc. I bid on a nice sestertius (I didnt care it was slabbed, I was going to remove it anyway). I was surprised to see I got it for $150 plus juice. I mean, a nice aVF Nerva sestertius??? I was pretty sure I could easily get $450 for it. When it arrived in the mail it was an As! Mislabeled as a sestertius. You would think since they dont fully attribute them they would get the basic description right. Ah well. My mistake. I ended up selling it for $100.

 

Am I incorrect that the 1-5 system is an extra cost option and currently you have the choice of a cheaper version without strike/surface and a full treatment with? I agree that we have been seeing this Colosseum Hoard label only recently so I assumed this was current/recent product.

...and I though I was being rough on them! I can't argue with what seems obvious.

When a person sells his name to a project but does not acquire control over that project, the risk of being made the fool is real. We recently had threads on the 'nobility' of the firm "Freeman and Sear". I recall a time when I trusted vCoins but it was sold to people not up to the task making the label worth less if not worthless. When will we learn? In about 30 years we seem to have gone from a hobby of honor to just business as usual.

 

The graders themselves don't make the labels. That's done by a separate department that slabs the coins and puts the labels in. The mislabeling is very rare because the graders put the wrong information into the system, the majority of the time the slabber just selected the wrong thing or input the wrong info into the system for the label such as a similar code.

That's correct. The 1-5 system is for the standard grading tier and higher. The economy and bulk submission tiers just get the grading like the OPs coin. I am not sure if there is an option for the 1-5 system on bulk submissions though if you are a big enough submitter I would imagine you could work something out for that.

 

MARKETING 101 !!!
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." - Joseph Goebbels...

 

There probably IS such a hoard, in the narrow and misleading sense that some telemarketer acquired a group of cheap Imperial denarii, most or all of which were indeed found together. The telemarketers need quite a lot of coins; it's patently more efficient for them to look for groups like that than to tediously obtain coins one at a time. This "hoard" won't have been recorded or studied though; it will have had all the obvious rarities and better quality pieces removed for sale elsewhere; it may have been broken up into smaller, uniform parcels containing maybe 100 coins each... and it will have no connection at all with the Colosseum. That might meet some "technical" definition of "hoard"--maybe even a legal definition if that ever became necessary--but it's a hoard from which all numismatic and scholarly interest and value has been systematically removed.

 

I'm pretty sure all it takes to get something like Colosseum Hoard put on it is paying enough to do so. Like I could send in all my coins and have "From the JWT708 Collection" put on the label.

 

It's quite ridiculous this slabbing business. I know we all make the odd mistake, but as others have said, who would want their mistake slabbed for all to see..... forever.
This is a recent mistake, by a very well known eBay seller. The guy is ok , and is no rogue, but even still.......
listing title... SUPER FOLLIS OF GALERIUS



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Super-Follis-of-Galerius-/201577055249?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&nma=true&si=Yuk3l9Nx6OO0hG5Pw2nfEc4V6HU%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

 

I went through your man's current six pages and found ~5 similar errors (check me on this). All were the standard easy to mix up guys. I will point out that many people make these amateur mistakes but the only ones I really consider a big deal are ones that mistake a cheap coin for a valuable one. He does not make that type. I only saw one on which I doubt authenticity and could be wrong on it since it is in horrid condition. I won't be bidding even though he had a couple coins I would have at prices I'd call within reason.

 

I don't have time now to check, but will later. Assuming 5 are misattributed, how many of the 26500 coins he has sold are sat in collections with incorrect cards... or have been sold on with errors.?