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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;nerosmyfavorite68, post: 24859707, member: 134416&quot;]I collect ancients only* (a few cool moderns here and there, modern being 1500&#039;s to the end of struck coinage), and stated grade isn&#039;t terribly important to most ancient collectors, which is why slabs also aren&#039;t terribly popular with collectors. </p><p><br /></p><p>That being said, I buy coins because of other factors, how they look (are they cool?), etc.&nbsp; Many ancients dealers don&#039;t bother to include a grade (like someone recently pointed out, the grades were more important in the days of fixed price paper lists, with no pictures), but some do.&nbsp; I&#039;ve been noticing that there&#039;s a bunch of grade inflation.&nbsp; The grades certainly aren&#039;t the same as when I was entering the hobby.&nbsp; The European dealers seem especially egregious.</p><p><br /></p><p>Example: <a href="https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/aeternitas_numismatics/2/product/q_thermius_mf_ar_denarius_ef_rome_103_bc_warriors/1999219/Default.aspx" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/aeternitas_numismatics/2/product/q_thermius_mf_ar_denarius_ef_rome_103_bc_warriors/1999219/Default.aspx" rel="nofollow">https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/aeternitas_numismatics/2/product/q_thermius_mf_ar_denarius_ef_rome_103_bc_warriors/1999219/Default.aspx</a></p><p><br /></p><p>This is not to pick on said dealer, it&#039;s a random example, but EF minus! It&#039;s certainly minus!&nbsp; It&#039;s a handsome coin, but maybe F+/F to my old-school grading scale. </p><p><br /></p><p>I have very few slabs, maybe a dozen, all presents.&nbsp; However, I also noticed the same thing.&nbsp; I&#039;d disagree with 60% of the grades, although it usually wasn&#039;t nearly as egregious as above.&nbsp; For example, a &#039;choice VF&#039; Antoninianus was F+ to my eyes, etc.&nbsp; I&#039;d jailbreak them all if I were less of a klutz, but that&#039;s another matter..</p><p><br /></p><p>Has this grade inflation been happening with U.S. coins? Even shades of difference in a grade are important in U.S. coins.&nbsp; A wild grade would be somewhat of a problem.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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