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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;TIF, post: 2523096, member: 56859&quot;]As expected, this has turned into another heated discussion on TPGs and slabbing.&nbsp; We have them every few months and I&#039;m okay with that.&nbsp; It&#039;s an important topic because I believe the spread of TPG disease is detrimental to the hobby of ancient coin collecting.</p><p><br /></p><p>I can understand a new collector&#039;s notion that buying an NGC coin is &quot;safe&quot;, even though it&#039;s not.&nbsp; Is an NGC-slabbed coin <i>less likely to be fake</i>?&nbsp; That&#039;s a reasonable assumption if the generalization takes into account coins from all sources (eBay, etc).&nbsp; When compared only to sellers who offer lifetime guarantees of authenticity, no.&nbsp; I always hope that such collectors will soon realize that TPG slabbing isn&#039;t necessary or desirable (by most collectors).&nbsp; Learn about the coin you&#039;re interested in and buy from a reputable seller who offers a guarantee of authenticity.</p><p><br /></p><p>At the risk of offending a very small number of CoinTalk Ancients members, what I <i>really</i> don&#039;t understand is willfully sending ancient coins to NGC for grading.&nbsp; It&#039;s one thing to buy one already slabbed, but to pay money for a coin to be sealed in a case?&nbsp; I truly don&#039;t understand and believe it must be due to the wild success of TPGs in modern coins and <i><b>collector conditioning</b></i>.&nbsp; What a success story those TPGs are, from a business standpoint.&nbsp; Just look how many threads there are from people who are considering cracking out their TPG&#039;d mass-produced coin in hopes of resubmitting it for a higher grade.&nbsp; What a coup for the TPGs!&nbsp; Grade creep, ever-changing (Improved!!!) holders, special occasion holders, &quot;crossovers&quot;... so many opportunities to slab and slab again.&nbsp; With the complicity of modern coin collectors, TPGs have apparently irrevocably changed the hobby.&nbsp; With modern coin the emphasis seems to be almost exclusively about the grade.&nbsp; Grading ancients is wildly subjective.</p><p><br /></p><p>If really you want your coin in a slab, just buy a re-openable slab and put it in there.&nbsp; As [USER=74282]@red_spork[/USER] pointed out, it is sometimes absolutely necessary to be able to inspect <i>all parts</i> of an ancient coin, repeatedly over time.&nbsp; How are you going to do that if it is in a slab?&nbsp; This is especially important for bronze coins.&nbsp; Prutot and lepta seem particularly prone to bronze disease.&nbsp; What happens when a slabbed prutah starts corroding?&nbsp; Will you even recognize it in time to avert significant damage?&nbsp; Will you let it rot in its coffin?&nbsp; Break it out and treat it, losing your $40 slab?</p><p><br /></p><p>Collecting ancient coins generally requires more effort than does collecting modern machine-made and virtually identical coins.&nbsp; I resent the idea of slabs in part because it entices new collectors to join in without expending little to no educational effort and (at least in my mind) not really appreciating the coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>I fear that if slabbing becomes more prevalent it will lead to greater numbers of moderns collectors jumping in and based on the outrageous prices they&#039;re willing to pay for mass-produced identical coins distinguished only by a third party&#039;s opinion of MS 65 over MS 64,&nbsp; they&#039;ll find ancients to be bargains (which they are), and then I&#039;ll have unwelcome competition-- unwelcome not only because of the deeper pockets but because I want the buyers to love, appreciate, and know something about their coins other than the scant information on the label, not just buying them because of someone else&#039;s opinion or for a registry set.</p><p><br /></p><p>You can call me a hypocrite and I can&#039;t say you&#039;d be wrong.&nbsp; I have purchased a small number of slabbed coins over the last few years, when the coin was well-priced, desirable, and otherwise not available at the time.&nbsp; At least I have removed them from the slab, although I do feel some residual guilt for buying a slabbed coin to begin with.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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