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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ed Snible, post: 3183383, member: 82322&quot;]Catalogers of high grade modern coins often boast about coins having only a few specimens, or even no specimens, known in a higher grade.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ancient coin catalogers will sometimes say &quot;finest known&quot; but they rarely say things like &quot;only a population of 43 coins better&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>On NGC&#039;s slab verification pages, for example <a href="https://www.ngccoin.com/certlookup/4629247-016/NGCAncients/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.ngccoin.com/certlookup/4629247-016/NGCAncients/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ngccoin.com/certlookup/4629247-016/NGCAncients/</a> , there are no population reports comparable to modern coins.&nbsp; That page says &quot;Total Graded by NGC: Not Available&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>Yet I noticed the Heritage Auctions web now includes NGC Ancients population reports.&nbsp; I noticed this watching their Long Beach auction yesterday.&nbsp; Here is an example from a recent Heritage online-only auction: <a href="https://coins.ha.com/itm/ancients/greek/ancients-attica-athens-ca-440-404-bc-ar-tetradrachm-23mm-1721-gm-9h-ngc-ms-5-5-3-5-test-cut/a/231836-61011.s" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://coins.ha.com/itm/ancients/greek/ancients-attica-athens-ca-440-404-bc-ar-tetradrachm-23mm-1721-gm-9h-ngc-ms-5-5-3-5-test-cut/a/231836-61011.s" rel="nofollow">https://coins.ha.com/itm/ancients/greek/ancients-attica-athens-ca-440-404-bc-ar-tetradrachm-23mm-1721-gm-9h-ngc-ms-5-5-3-5-test-cut/a/231836-61011.s</a> .&nbsp; The auction listing displays the slabbed population with the grade of the current lot highlighted in yellow.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here is the owl population as of September 7th 2018:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]820707[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>The auction house gives an NGC population report and includes the count of star (= &quot;impressive&quot;).&nbsp; They don&#039;t mention &quot;fine style&quot; or &quot;test cut&quot; or the x/5 ratings.&nbsp; This particular lot has a huge test cut that doesn&#039;t make it into the numerical chart.</p><p><br /></p><p>I was curious to see the single starred &quot;Choice MS&quot; example in the above population report.&nbsp; It is <a href="https://coins.ha.com/itm/greek/ancient-coins/ancients-attica-athens-ca-440-404-bc-ar-tetradrachm-23mm-1722-gm-5h-ngc-choice-ms-5-5-5-5/a/3066-30035.s" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://coins.ha.com/itm/greek/ancient-coins/ancients-attica-athens-ca-440-404-bc-ar-tetradrachm-23mm-1722-gm-5h-ngc-choice-ms-5-5-5-5/a/3066-30035.s" rel="nofollow">https://coins.ha.com/itm/greek/ancient-coins/ancients-attica-athens-ca-440-404-bc-ar-tetradrachm-23mm-1722-gm-5h-ngc-choice-ms-5-5-5-5/a/3066-30035.s</a> , and it sold for $36k last month.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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