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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;IdesOfMarch01, post: 1905326, member: 39084&quot;]This is just one of a number of issues I find troublesome when grading services apply modern grading standards and techniques to ancient coins.&nbsp; There is no rational or logical reason to charge a percentage of a coin&#039;s value for grading that coin, other than to enrich the grading service itself and extract more money from the collector.&nbsp; If the grading service provided some sort of authenticity guarantee along with the grade, then it would be reasonable to charge a percentage fee, but they specifically disclaim any such guarantee.</p><p><br /></p><p>Another glaring weakness of applying modern grading standards (e.g., &quot;strike&quot; and &quot;surface&quot;) to ancient coins is that they completely ignore a coin&#039;s artistic style.&nbsp; While style is, to some extent, subjective, it&#039;s not completely so, and some coins clearly exhibit better style than others that might be graded equally by modern standards.</p><p><br /></p><p>While it might be argued that grading and slabbing an ancient coin provides more security to a novice collector, this is illusory.&nbsp; Without an accompanying guarantee of authenticity, the novice collector has nothing other than the grading service&#039;s opinion on two aspects of a coin&#039;s overall value and desirability.&nbsp; So what?&nbsp; Other than making it easier to resell the coin to another novice collector, what has been gained?</p><p><br /></p><p>Finally, slabbing deprives the collector of an opportunity to directly handle a 2,000 year old coin.&nbsp; I find this tactile experience to be essential to the joy of collecting ancient coins.&nbsp; The hobby loses a lot of its excitement and wonder if you can&#039;t do this.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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