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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;IdesOfMarch01, post: 8311591, member: 39084&quot;]I agree with the implication in the second quote that all collectors, either consciously or subconsciously, take a coin&#039;s &quot;eye appeal&quot; into their evaluation when considering whether or not to purchase a coin for their collection.</p><p><br /></p><p>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., &quot;grading&quot; matters to ancient collectors as well but it&#039;s less emphasized) rather than qualitatively (i.e., grading of ancients is mostly a curiosity to true collectors rather than dabblers or speculators).&nbsp; 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&#039;t true for most ancient coin collectors (as contrasted with speculators or dabblers).</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s an example that illustrates why:</p><p><br /></p><p>Consider these three Sikyon staters and my personal observations:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1471282[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>One of the most interesting aspects of this coin is the mythical Chimera beast -- with the body of a lion, a goat&#039;s head protruding from the body, and the tail ending in a serpent&#039;s head.&nbsp; 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. </p><p><br /></p><p>The leftmost coin (#1) is bright, well struck, reasonably well centered, but the serpent&#039;s head is off the flan.&nbsp; If you want a full chimera, this isn&#039;t the coin for you since you&#039;ll have to describe to your friends that the lion&#039;s tail ends with a snake&#039;s head.&nbsp; But it&#039;s still a fine coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>The middle coin (#2) has all the features of the chimera fully on the flan, although it appears a little less bright, so it&#039;s a strong candidate.</p><p><br /></p><p>The rightmost coin&#039;s (#3) obverse actually shows better detail in the goat&#039;s head and serpent&#039;s head, and the obverse is slightly sharper than the middle coin, but the lion&#039;s left rear paw is off the flan, and it&#039;s slightly darker.</p><p><br /></p><p>So my thought is, how could a grading system possibly help you make a decision among these coins?&nbsp; Suppose coin 3 has a higher grade than coin 2, but you like brighter coins?&nbsp; Would it be wrong to choose coin 2?&nbsp; And if your budget can&#039;t stretch to a coin with the full serpent&#039;s tail on the flan, do you choose coin 1 since it&#039;s still a chimera and illustrates that mythical beast?</p><p><br /></p><p>How could coin grades <i>per se</i> have any relevance to helping a collector make a decision among these coins?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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