Question re NGC holder - Alexander III lifetime tetradrachm

It has to basically fall out for that. They wouldn’t do it for free for his

 

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OP - You DO NOT have apologize for wanting to keep your treasure in the holder. The controversy between slabbed and raw goes on & on & on & ....on!

IMHO, I think having ancients slabbed by NGC is the safest way to protect the coin; have an expert(s) opinion, and, giving your coin a professional presentation; again, IMHO.

 

I would not remove that coin from the holder if you ever intend to sell it. The flat reverse strike would not sell as well raw as when graded ChVF.

 

Personally I would add to also keep the NGC insert if you crack it out. They are reputable concerning fakes, so an old ngc insert to me is about as good as many well respect auction firm paperwork. I just bought a late 16th century Mexican 8 reales with the former slab insert included.

 

Fair point.

If you buy an ancient stabbed, I will not berate anyone who leaves them that way. I simply do not have the same "connection" with the coin if I cannot hold it. I think many of us are the same. If owning in plastic so you can never touch it works for you sir, then god bless and welcome here.

 

Oh darn, decisions, decisions, decisions. What am I to do! Call NGC or leave it alone, that is the question... I know, take it to a local dealer, or better yet, a Numismatist. Nice coin, good luck.

 

Interesting thread & responses!

Releasing a modern coin is fairly straightforward with most any method you want to use (ie, hammer, saw, between the jaws of a vise, Dremel tool).

But this begs the question: Considering the possible crystalization, or brittleness, or unseen stress cracks, & such of some ancient coins, wouldn't cracking them out require extra care due to the shock or vibrations that these extracting methods would create? Has anyone ended up with a broken ancient coin as a result of the process used?

 

It's not a problem. The coin is not going anywhere. Even perfectly round modern coins can rotate in the holder.

 

Oops - well I learned something today..

Thanks! I do have almost all of my ancients unslabbed (mostly Roman, essentially new to Greek). I understand and agree with you as to the value of holding history in one’s hands! That’s one of my favorite parts about ancients - being hand-struck, you know for a fact that a least a few folks (and likely many more) touched a given circulated piece well over 2 millennia ago (at least in the case of Classical or post-Classical Greece).

Admittedly, initially coming from US modern coins, I can’t bring myself to store on a velvet tray, though - those look so classy and seem to have worked pretty darn well for the past 500 years or so, but I end up using Saflips, capsules and desiccant and generally handling with nitrile gloves. I know that’s overkill and I certainly wouldn’t judge anybody else for having different practice, but I majored in archaeology and history back in college, and old habits of preservation die hard!

 

Sounds like a good plan - I’m guessing you’re the type of person who likes to pull band-aids off your wounds in one pull, but I could be wrong . Thanks for the response and helpful info!

 

Thanks, I didn’t even know that was an option - I appreciate the heads-up!

 

That’s a beautiful coin! You win . And you just answered I question I was wondering about and never asked… admittedly, without researching it, it looked like some sort of water spout to me, but the chronology of that technology seemed questionable. Tarsos plough it is - mystery solved! Thanks!

 

Thanks! Appreciate the alternative perspective. Seems like there is a time and place for both options. That is one of the nice parts about slabbed coins - assuming they remain sealed, at least in my fairly limited experience, I’ve never personally had a coin degrade to any noticeable degree in a slab. You can definitely have protection just as good without the slab, but I think it can take a little bit more work and upkeep. Of course, I also understand folks’ point that, given the fact that a coin survived the past 2+ millennia or so, likely for most of that in some form of buried amphora, having them in a climate-controlled modern home is unlikely to do much damage in any event.

 

Thanks, good to know! Appreciate the sharp eye.

 

Thanks! All good ideas!

 

Good to know, and good points - thanks. I know NGC doesn’t guarantee anything, but I definitely trust their folks more than my own eye when it comes to spotting forgeries. I really like those 8 reales… sounds like yours is a pretty early New World cob and it’s fascinating to know when you hold a piece like that that it is made from some of the first “plata” brought from the mines of the Americas. I’m a diver and love wrecks, so I have a few coins in that genre myself (tiny 1/2 real cob, and milled 1 real and 8 reales from the 1715 fleet and El Cazador), none of which are as cool as the early full size cobs. I had a chance to visit the Colombian national museum a few years back and they had some pretty interesting displays with original minting equipment and coins…

 

Thanks for the welcome, and I certainly understand where you are coming from! I suppose that since I can hold most of my ancients, having a couple in slabs doesn’t bother me much. Or perhaps I’m just saying that now only for the hammer and/or hacksaw to emerge later

 

No one way to collect ancients. We of all people should understand everyone can approach the hobby their own way.

To your original point though, yeah ancients are tough for standardized holders. many cannot be in them at all, others might have a little "oopsie" to one side or another since they were not perfectly round.

 

When a coin is seated diagonally in the holder like that, it means they used a gasket that was a little too small for the coin and it wasn't caught in QC.

You should in theory be able to return it for free reholdering based on that issue.

 

It seems like, NGC does a pretty good job, of authenticating ancient coins.
I wish NGC offered 3 options for ancient coins :
1. A slab.
2. A certificate of authenticity (COA), with photos of the coin's obverse and reverse on the COA, and an NGC number on the COA, with no slab. For the COA option, they could have photos of the coin, on the NGC web site, which one could lookup, by the NGC number on the COA, just like they do, for their slabs. That way, the owner of the coin, could prove, more or less, that the coin was authenticated by NGC.
3. Both a slab and a COA.