NGC no grade?

Hello. I got this awesome Byzantine (or is it, Romaioi?) coin in an NGC holder. I might have spent too much but i loved the color, design, size, and high grade of coin. I’m fairly new to ancients but it has no problem that I can discern, so I’m wondering why it’s missing a grade. I’ve seen others like mine w/out a grade, and sometimes they have “smoothing” or some other problem to the right in italics. My guess is that it’s an earlier holder, or perhaps a lower tier like economy service? Do you know?

 

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Well that is a bummer....anonymous issue eh....that would eat me alive not knowing the specific reason.

 

Greetings @joecoincollect and welcome to the Ancients Forum. I’m sure that your coin is authentic but it most likely has some issues such as, overcleaning, smoothing, artificial patina or all of those. NGC used to have a policy whereby they would return such a coin to you un-slabbed and in a coin flip (body bagged). They apparently have modified those rules a bit. Don’t get discouraged! There are some excellent dealers in Byzantine coins at reasonable prices.

This link will shed more light on your question.
https://www.ngccoin.com/news/article/2854/no-grades/

I’ve emailed some links to you. Perhaps other members can do the same.

 

How does that link apply to NGC Ancients? All ancients are 'Details' coins by their US standards. I really do not believe they should slab a coin with no grade unless they add a word that would explain why it got no grade. Will they slab a coin with no grade on request just because the submitter does not want to risk receiving a low grade that would make the coin hard to sell?

 

@joecoincollect - I don't think there is anything wrong with your coin at all. My understanding of the slab not having a grade is due to the submission level and service fee at which the coin was submitted. I'm pretty certain this would have been a bulk submission from a dealer who only wanted the coins encapsulated without grade thereby reducing their overall cost, but making an attractive "package" which increases the value for resale into a market not specifically targeting Ancient coin collectors. @Barry Murphy from NGC can clarify.

The label on your slab is only available to bulk submitters as shown here

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NGC Ancients has to be separated from the regular NGC grading service under which you would submit US/World coins for example. The Article linked to above is directed towards the regular NGC service

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Here is an NGC "Story Vault" coin I recently picked up which I am quite pleased with - pleased with the coin that is as it will soon be free of the plastic.

 

joecoincollect, It would be nice to see the reverse of your coin. Why don't you shoot some photos of both sides of the coin without the plastic baggy . From the poor photo you posted your coin looks like an XF by NGC standards.Pictured below are photos of a Class A follis I sold long ago.

 

The no grade holder is just the lowest tier for bulk submissions. It's used primarily for inexpensive coins or by promoters who want to limit their SKU's. We don't put coins in no grade holders that otherwise would not be graded. The same standards apply in terms of authenticity, tooling, repairs etc...

Barry Murphy

 

Thanks for the clarification. The differences between NGC modern and NGC ancients are confusing. As I read it, modern will encapsulate repaired coins according to the link:
https://www.ngccoin.com/news/article/2854/no-grades/

There is nothing wrong with this IMHO as long as the label reflects that the reason is something like a repair rather than something innocent like cleaning.

 

My apologies for giving you some bad information @joecoincollect ! My interpretation of no grade was all wrong The links to the dealers are correct

 

Hello everyone, thanks for all the replies! Very informative. I couldn’t be more pleased. I suspected the coin was in a market-acceptable condition, so I’m glad to read your input. All input is appreciated, thank you! I’ll try and take better pics soon

 

Here are the NGC pictures.

https://www.ngccoin.com/certlookup/5767638-119/NGCAncients/

 

thanks! great looking coin, right?

 

Not exactly, sorry. Maybe the pictures are poor quality, but i doubt is XF.
Few are as nice as Al's. Most will be like my latest - 15.5 GBP (full price).

 

shanxi, Those NGC photos are absolutely horrendous ! Their stock photos are usually pretty bad. I recently got 10 coins back from an NGC submission & they look as bad as the photos in the link you posted. See the photos below.


NGC photos.

My photos.

 

Your follis looks like a really nice example. I don't know why it was not assigned a grade by NGC, and why it was returned in a large "body bag". NGC is a mass slabbing operation, just like PCGS and I sometimes wonder if their primary objective is to entomb as many coins in plastic slabs a quickly as possible.

I must say their mounting system for ancients, while allowing one to view some of the edge, does from time to time cause coins to pop out of the prongs. When that happens I am inclined to just crack the coin out of the slab and be done with re-slabbing that coin.

Most of the coins that I have in NGC and PCGS slabs are ones purchased already slabbed. I only have a handful of coins that I have submitted for slabbing.

Many a moon ago, back in the ancient times of the early 80's, there was a line of yellow paper envelopes with handmade cotton liners. They were called Gemvelopes, and rumor had it that the cotton liners were hand made by nuns. I only have a few; they were perfect for storing ancients.

Later there were polyliners that could be used as inserts for 2 x 2 envelopes. Are they still around?

 

Even NGC can't take a picture through their slabs. You might think they would shoot the thing before they encapsulated it.

 

The funniest result of this is the use of raw coins(mostly from CNG) in articles they sponsor and on their website. They know photos of coins in slabs almost always look like garbage.

 

robinjojo you must not have read the previous posts. It’s not a body bag.


The online NGC photos are just for verifying that the coin you are buying is the coin we certified. They aren’t meant for publication. We do 10-15000 photos a day as every coin that gets holdered gets photographed. There isn’t time to edit that many photos.

we do offer pre-slab photography and a high res, properly lit and edited post slabbing photo services if you desire better photos.

the primary reason we use CNG photos for our article is because we wouldn’t have all the coins on hand at the time the article is written to properly illustrate the article.

Barry Murphy.

 

I didn’t know coins fall out of prongs sometimes. I like the idea of ancients being in slabs somewhat, as long as i don’t have to pay the fees! I guess it’s sort of passed on later but I would only buy one at a good price. As for those 80s envelopes, never heard of them

 

If an ancient coin falls out of the prongs we can fix it.

Barry Murphy