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Message:: [QUOTE="Valentinian, post: 2228858, member: 44316"]If all coins of a type start out the same (pretty much true with US coins) and "wear" produces effects on a single scale (more, or less, worn, as opposed to additional dimensions with say dings or color, or digs in more or less important places on the design), then (and only then) "grades" based on wear make sense. As others have noted, for ancients there are several other factors at least as important as grade. Think of that as a positive. The tyranny of "grade" has almost ruined US coin collecting. In US collecting everyone is trained to think that ''55" is a poor grade, hardly worth owning, even if it looks to an untrained eye a lot like a "62".    With ancients there is far more leeway to like whatever appeals to you. If you come from collecting US coins, try to forget what you know about "grade" and look at the coin instead of the slab. In US coins that is very hard to do. I'll bet when you see a slabbed US coin you look at the grade on the slab *before* you look at the coin! Why bother looking at the coin at all?  The slab number tells you what it is worth and how much you should like it. On the other hand, if an ancient coin is not slabbed, you have the luxury of looking at the coin!  A revolutionary idea! Look at the coin![/QUOTE]