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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Kasia, post: 2922464, member: 31533&quot;]I like a lot of my coins raw, but because of some circumstances, I have some recently I am collecting graded and in holders. Some, like my limited Frankie collection, are all MS64/65, and only Philly issues. In slabs to make sure my eyes were not picking up sliders with raw coins, which benefits me as someone relatively new to self grading coins and attempting to&nbsp; have some known quantity so I get the experience of actually being able to see the flaws and overall experience of these compared to ones I might see graded higher at a show. It is part of educating myself for grading, and when I am done or pass on, they will be somewhat more easy to get sold by me or my heirs, and not just messed up because someone doesn&#039;t recognize the value. Once I started paying attention to graded coins and what might have limited it from a higher grade, I think I became more picky about buying one raw. One coin shop I sometimes went to, but usually only bought supplies at, was one where I started recognizing that many of their coins in 2x2s and marked as BU Unc coins were ones I would say were sliders or likely sliders, and that almost none of the ones graded as Gem BU would get more than a MS65. Yet their prices were strong for the presumed unc &#039;grade&#039; on the 2x2. At one point they had some older Russian coins that looked great, but were not cheap that I wanted to buy, but that type of coin had known fakes, and I did not feel confident that the proprietors would be able to spot it. I could have bought them and had them graded and slabbed, but too wary they would come back bad. The somewhat limited amount of dollars I put into the common Frankies (sometimes only 15-20) were well worth actually seeing and &#039;handling&#039; ones accurately graded. I learned from handling (as a child and teen) some real Prussian dishes my grandma brought from Germany in the first quarter of the 20th century that were hand-painted and being able to see the actual makers marks. These are quite valuable, and me being able to see a piece at an estate sale and immediately know from handling it if it was real or a faked one is an excellent skill, as one can quickly figure out from their price whether it is worth it to buy and resell it, and maybe say what you might profit from it as opposed to just totally wasting your money and having something that won&#039;t sell... because that is a collector&#039;s area with a lot of faked pieces, and sometimes only spotting a closely faked makers mark tells you that.</p><p><br /></p><p>Some of my other graded ones are difficult to find ungraded and if found, having some bought graded again helps me get a better handle at differing in grading even by a grade or two. And in modern coins, that in itself will make a huge difference. Many coins have essentially no real value unless they can be a MS65 or above, and it can be a slippery slope for people who think they are able to buy raw and grade accurately yet don&#039;t do much looking at actual slabbed coins. Perhaps this is why CAC green beans are sought after.</p><p><br /></p><p>I imagine that in ancients there are characteristics and challenges in identifying some fakes or questionable coins as well.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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