I was doing some research on the early history of coinage and "independent" origins of coin-like currency. I'd never seen any Chinese spade or knife money in NGC slabs, and always just assumed that this was probably due to the odd shapes and lack of applicable holders. However, I began looking for early Indian karshapana "coins" and couldn't find any of those either, even though it seems that they would easily be accommodated by traditional slabs. I ended up on the NGC website looking for answers and found this in their "Coins we grade" section. "However, currently we do not grade coins from ancient India (including Kushan and its related or derivative coinages) or from any region further east." There is no explanation given for why this would be the case. I'm assuming that it might be because they don't have anyone on-staff with the appropriate expertise? Or maybe because counterfeits are too prevalent? In any case, I figured I'd run it past you guys out of curiosity. Thought maybe one of you might know the answer, or have additional theories. If not, then maybe I'll shoot them an email. I just don't like bothering companies with questions intended to satiate my own curiosity
Cherd, posted: "I was doing some research on the early history of coinage and "independent" origins of coin-like currency. I'd never seen any Chinese spade or knife money in NGC slabs, and always just assumed that this was probably due to the odd shapes and lack of applicable holders. However, I began looking for early Indian karshapana "coins" and couldn't find any of those either, even though it seems that they would easily be accommodated by traditional slabs. I ended up on the NGC website looking for answers and found this in their "Coins we grade" section. "However, currently we do not grade coins from ancient India (including Kushan and its related or derivative coinages) or from any region further east." There is no explanation given for why this would be the case. I'm assuming that it might be because they don't have anyone on-staff with the appropriate expertise? Or maybe because counterfeits are too prevalent? In any case, I figured I'd run it past you guys out of curiosity. Thought maybe one of you might know the answer, or have additional theories. If not, then maybe I'll shoot them an email. I just don't like bothering companies with questions intended to satiate my own curiosity." Do yourself and NGC Customer Service a favor and don't bother calling. You already know most of the answer and they are under no obligation to say more than they already have. Look, in order to authenticate something you need to have knowledge about it. They do not. That is a good thing because as possibly the #1 TPGS they want to do things right? I've been in this business for decades authenticating coins and tokens from ancients to moderns from around the world. When I joined NGC, as a "jack-of-all-things numismatic (and master of nothing) they did not do ancients, errors, or tokens of any kind. Things the other TPGS (except PCGS) including ANACS, PCI, INSAB had been doing for years. Furthermore they did an extremely limited number of varieties. I was shocked! At the first coin show I attended as an NGC grader, a man asked me why we don't do tokens. I said I have no idea, we should do them and perhaps he should write the owner and request we do them. I will not tell you what happened next but you would have thought I killed someone. Back at the office I argued that we could not be #1 anything as things stood. I was told the reason for not doing certain coins was NGC would only do things the "right way." Gradually, they hired an error collector who has become well known, started an ancient department and expanded to tokens and medals. Now they can lay claim to being #1.
I think they might have started or did some dealer a small favour. See below. PS - Not my coin, not my picture.
Here's the thing. The place I work no longer certifies/grades ancients or Pre-1600 coins. Nevertheless, we'll do almost any coin or token when something comes in out of our normal range that is easy to attribute and easy to authenticate.
I seem to remember something on the website like, "exceptions might be made for batch submissions or focused, specialized collections". This must be one of those types of things. Interesting find.
Straight from the horse's mouth "Unfortunately, we are not grading Kushan coins for regular submissions. This was a one time deal for the Historical Scholar Collection."
