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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 675894, member: 19463&quot;]<b>no slabs</b></p><p><br /></p><p>Most collectors of ancient coins avoid slabbed coins.&nbsp; There is absolutely nothing wrong with a third party certification but the better ones for ancients issue opinions with a photograph rather than a slab.&nbsp; After a coin is in a slab, it is much harder to tell whether it is genuine or not and I simply do not trust this call to anonymous graders.&nbsp; Since ancients do not fall mechanically into grades as easily as modern coins, terms like MS-65 mean a lot less and I&#039;d never buy a coin based on a slab label.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>However, slabbers are opening the market for ancients to a completely different market.&nbsp; They could care less that I would not touch their product but hope to sell to people coming to ancients from the modern slab and digital grading mentality.&nbsp; They may be exactly what you seek and whatever feeling of security you gain may offset the liklihood you are paying double for the coin compared to a mainstream dealer.&nbsp; So far, I have not seen a coin I want in a slab.&nbsp; I hope this continues to be the case.&nbsp; If I do feel the need to own a slab, I will have to set the coin free and absorb the financial loss.&nbsp; In ancients, this is not such a big thing since most of us realize that we will bay $100 to get one coin and $20 to get another that we consider of equal merit.&nbsp; With US, there is always another identical or better coin being offered but there are ancients fairly worth $50 that I have been seeking for decades.&nbsp; I&#039;ll buy one when it shows up for $20 or $200.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The other problem with ancients is that I do not know any one person whose opinion I would accept without question for any large percentage of coins.&nbsp; I know people who I would consider fully on top of the Gallienus shown above and other (different) people who could handle the Sassanian.&nbsp; There are a few dealers that I&#039;d trust with 90% of the commonly seen ancients (Greek and Roman) but I doubt that even they themselves would have the gall to offer an opinion on some Central Asian or other remote fringes of the hobby.&nbsp; Since, for the most part, I do not know who is looking at the slabbed ancients, I&#039;ll need to wonder whether their opinion outranks mine.&nbsp; I feel confident &#039;expertising&#039; about 10% of ancient coins.&nbsp; Given another 40 years, I hope to double that number.&nbsp; Certainly most slab services of any possible value will be body bagging any coins submitted that do not fall in the area of expertise of their staff --- I hope they will, anyway.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>If you are buying an ancient from a respectable dealer (like VCoins) you expect to get a lifetime guarantee of authenticity.&nbsp; Those seeking one ancient coin should buy from one of those dealers.&nbsp; I buy many coins from sources that do not offer this level of protection and realize that I foul up on ocassion.&nbsp; Let me assure you that when I decide I want a $500 coin that I know next to nothing about, I will buy it from a full service, full guarantee dealer who I believe has enough background in that specific area that his opinion makes the guarantee very unlikely to be needed.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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