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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;qwasty, post: 990129, member: 27130&quot;]The forum I was referring to was the <a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php" rel="nofollow">Forvm Ancient Coins Forum</a>. You haven&#039;t offended me, but I&#039;m glad you recognized that it could have happened. If I were a newcomer, I would naturally want to get a good impression in my first exposure to the hobby.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>All of that is true. However, I see a lot of duplication of effort in the ancient coin collecting hobby, and I see very little in the way of an introductory level for new collectors. Not all ancient coins are obscure, and there&#039;s no need to clean, conserve, attribute, authenticate, and grade a coin more than once. </p><p><br /></p><p>The way things are currently done, the only safe way to buy a coin is direct from a dealer. That means it&#039;s hard to start simple, and later sell your coins to be replaced with more sophisticated ones. If it were possible to sell your coins to direct to another collector, with no uncertainty about the coin, then a collector can feel safe having a dynamic collection that changes as the collector changes.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Third party services probably won&#039;t work in that situation, just as you say. However, that is not the case with all coins, and it is an area best left to intermediate or advanced collectors. Even so, a coin of uncertain origin can still be authenticate and graded, as well as attributed to a catalog number or even a specific provenance. So, even in those uncertain cases, slabbing can still make sense. </p><p><br /></p><p>I like modern Chinese coins minted 1979 or later, and even though they&#039;re modern, they have many of the same issues you mentioned. New varieties are being discovered all the time, and the grading companies have had to reslab a few coins to keep up with the latest research. The Chinese mint didn&#039;t keep good records, so, much of what is known about the earlier coins comes from collectors and information gathered by the grading companies.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;d very much like to, but it has to make sense to me financially. Many people are attracted to coin collecting as a hobby because it&#039;s one of the few hobbies that can actually be beneficial to your finances.</p><p><br /></p><p>I also have to be able to buy and sell on my own terms, without needing to go through an expert middleman due to authenticity fears. Having a large population of high-class coins available that have been attributed and graded would make it easier on me to determine things such as rarity and value for myself. On top of that, the independent attribution would lead me right where I need to go to find out more about the coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Right now, the main thing turning me away from the ancient coin market is the fact that it&#039;s difficult to sell the coins directly to a collector for a price that makes good financial sense to me in comparison to the price I paid for it. If the coin is unslabbed, then every fact I present about the coin will be in doubt. If the coin is verified independently, then the collectors complain about the slab.</p><p><br /></p><p>Since so few coins have been slabbed, there&#039;s quite a lot of potential for adjustment in the market once it becomes more common. I suspect that will serve to bring prices down for many coins, and bring prices up for a few coins. I don&#039;t know enough yet to make a good guess about which coins are the ones that are undervalued, and which are overvalued. It sure would be handy if there were comprehensive online sources of information. </p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ve thought about solving these problems myself, but it would require some dedication. I&#039;m not opposed to the idea, it would be quite fun actually, but I&#039;m not sure I have the financial resources to pull that off.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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