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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 3824382, member: 19463&quot;]Slabbed ancients were created to gather in the untapped market of collectors who had no experience with ancients and felt comfortable with plastic around coins that could be ruined by human fingerprints. As such, they did the hobby a service in one sense but the same people who came to ancients that way brought their attitudes toward grading from moderns as well.&nbsp; The trend among traditional collectors of ancients has been away from using Sheldon letter grades (Fine and friends) realizing that the letters alone tell little about the coin&#039;s appearance.&nbsp; US slabs assume untouched and original surfaces as well as full and even strike.&nbsp; These are next to unknown with ancients.&nbsp; A small percentage of ancients left the mint in &#039;mint state&#039; an being buried in dirt/water/chemicals doe not heal original issue problems.&nbsp; All ancients are &#039;Details&#039; coins to some degree and the &#039;rules&#039; of cleaning, handling etc. have to be adapted to coins excavated from the earth rather than secured in grandpa&#039;s sock drawer.&nbsp; We have ancients that were last cleaned before the Revolutionary War but we lack bank bags held in vaults for 2000 years.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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