GRADING is an integral part of collecting – YOUR VIEWS assist to improve todays thinking?

Again, I'll offer a different perspective on Doug's thread.

Although I like quizzes, when I looked at this thread I had NO CLUE where to start and how to figure it out. This period of Roman coins isn't familiar to me, and I couldn't completely read the legends on the coins or recognize the letters.

For me, the level of prior knowledge needed to successfully complete this quiz was too high to make it enjoyable to pursue. It had nothing to do with the coins themselves, but everything to do with my lack of knowledge and familiarity with those coins in general.

I suspect others failed to respond for the same reason. Since my main reason for participating in any thread is to provide insight and information, or support an effort well done, I didn't respond to Doug's post since I couldn't do any of these. But I did appreciate the coins!

 

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IOM hit the nail on the head regarding Doug's recent quiz post. Even as an "open book" test it would have taken me a long time, and it wasn't intended to be "open book". I usually don't care to make uneducated guesses so I didn't try to answer.

 

This is pretty much how I feel about it. Back when I was a new ancient coin collector, assigning grades was good practice and helped me understand how grading works. Doug's pages on grading were very helpful. I too still assign personal grades to each of my coins, also out of habit.

When deciding on a coin purchases today I almost never pay attention to a dealer's grade. Coins are purchased based on other criteria, rather than an arbitrary artificial grading system.

 

The point of that post is whether I am wasting my time posting coins here. I am. That subject has been discussed here on CT several times including one this month. The only people who seem to read late Roman posts are people interested in late Roman coins. I am odd in that I read and try to learn from the posts on coins that cost more than my entire collection is worth. I do not plan on owning the coins shown by our upper level members but I do have an opinion on them (like the matter of expecting to see transparency in a Claudius Spes' attire). We seem to have relatively few general collectors of ancients here. It is not even a matter of the market value of a coin since the posts of the two most expensive coins I have ever bought in 50 years both came in my CT years and were met with apathy since no one here collects them as a specialty and both were only fine since I could not afford an EF even if I could find one. My purpose was to determine if anyone was reading posts like the one that explained those coins. I found out.

 

If by this you mean that you think people aren't reading your posts, that's not true in my case. I read all your posts, despite the fact that many of them are a blur on the ancient coin superhighway to me.

 

I read pretty much everything Doug writes - he writes well, and I always learn something. If it's not a topic I can contribute to, I will hit "like" to show it was appreciated.

 

I go in spurts, either I read everything or nothing at all when I ain't posting much. I am also a general collector but have more Roman coins than anything. If you seen some of my coin galleries, you will see this is so.

 

yup, I'm in!! => I will follow your lead wherever it takes us!!

Oh, and I definitely read your stuff, Doug (I love your sly and dry sense of humour) ... but I must admit that I'm a bit intimidated by your big coin-brain, so I seldom try to talk shop just in case you ask me something about coins (yah, I hate getting that deer-in-the-headlights look on my face!!)

 

What am I, chopped liver? As frustrated as I get with certain volumes of RIC, I thoroughly enjoyed hunting down your coins and learning something new.

 

I enjoy your posts Doug, I don't understand half of what you say but your photos make the most AWESOME jigsaws.

 

Doug, I would rather read posts about LRB's and coins I can afford than those featuring six figure gold. Thats just a preference though and the reality is I read both when time permits. Your content is always very much appreciated by everyone here...thats a fact. I read your posts when I'm on the forum, and they are very interesting, although 50 percent of the time I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

 

I was thinking about posting some bling, but I changed my mind and decided to post this wish coin from Acragas. This is one of my most favorite coins of high grade. Of course I'll never own it.





SICILY
ACRAGAS.
No.: 26
Estimate: $ 200000
d=31 mm
Tetradrachm, about 410 BC. AR 17.13 g. A-K-R-A Two eagles standing side by side on the upturned body of a dead hare; the nearer one, with closed wings, screaming with its head reared, the second one, with spread wings, is tearing at the prey. Rev. AKRA-GA-NTIN-ON Crab, below Scylla swimming l., her r. hand raised to shade her eyes (aposkopein), her l. arm trailing behind, her hair streaming in the wind; she is composed of a nude, female upper part of the body, of the foreparts of two dogs and of a long, spiny and finned body of a ketos. Pozzi 389 (these dies). Rizzo pl. 1, 20 (these dies). Gulbenkian pl. XVII, 166 (these dies). U. Westermark, Skylla on the Coins of Akragas, Essays Bérend pl. 25, 1. Very rare, of high artistic value, one of the masterpieces of Greek Coinage. Light tone. Slightly irregularly shaped flan, but well centred on the rev., showing Scylla in full.
Extremely fine

 

I'm probably one of the "others" you are referring to, and I agree the feeling sucks when hardly any other coin collectors (who we depend on to be our audience when no one else in real life will) pay attention to your threads and coins. I've hesitated in posting a few my coins and informative threads in the past because of this but realized I would be doing a disservice to the few that do look forward to what I have to say (like you @Mat).

As for participating, I myself would be more active here but life and stuff...

 

I'm still fairly wet behind the ears, but I like reading about the things I don't know and always appreciate the threads where I learn something.

 

Same here. If it's not something I typically collect, that doesn't mean I don't read and appreciate the poster's effort (often indicated by clicking "like", rather than writing that I like it). I may have to see the same thing ten times before retaining the information if it is for a coin outside of my usual interests... but I still enjoy reading it.

 

One of the things I really enjoy here is we get a variety of collectors of various budgets and knowledge levels who contribute and keep the hobby interesting.

 

Thank you all for contributing, I got answers, many different to what I expected. Many additional points included a very friendly forum and everyone contributes from a serious way to fun, this makes the hobby so much more enjoyable. Over 1'000 people read the POST in only a few days and many contributed.


Also I would like to thank many additional thoughts from 14 individuals who wrote me 26 emails in total again giving me information from their own research.



Once again many thanks, it gave me interesting material and understanding that most of us collect ancients out of the 'sealed plastic'.


Regards

Jeff

 

If there were an award for CoinTalk ancient-coin MVP, I'd vote for Doug. His posts are interesting, educational, entertaining, expand the horizons of the readers, and are full of ancient-coin-collecting wisdom. Pay attention to Doug's thoughts and you will enjoy the hobby a lot more.

 

I agree => Doug Rocks!!