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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;lehmansterms, post: 3102484, member: 80804&quot;]MKman123 - you write in your initial post:</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;...<b>My goal is to preserve them</b>.[...] I notice many of you ancient collectors collect raw/prefer raw. Why is that? <b>For me a slab would better preserve it from the elements</b> and help with authenticity as I&#039;m sure counterfeits are a big problem.</p><p><br /></p><p>Although what you write is, technically speaking, correct, it ignores the huge variety of storage and protective choices available.&nbsp; But more importantly, carried to its ultimate, your goal would put all coins in vaults in museums &quot;Oh, that&#039;s OK&quot; I&#039;m sure some would say &quot;We have photos of our coins&quot;. Don&#039;t get me wrong, good photos and the ability to take them are of greater importance than you&#039;re even likely to suspect at this point in your journey into the wider world of numismatics. If you&#039;re satisfied with photos, why bother to buy the coins at all? Coffee-table books with glossy coin-porn photos of the worldwide, best known specimens blown up to full-page size on luxurious papers would be all you would need, right?</p><p>I can&#039;t speak for everyone (obviously), but for me I see slabs primarily as a cynical attempt to spread to Classical numismatics the madness into which Modern World &amp; US coin collecting has descended by removing any necessity for the &quot;investor&quot; (notice, I didn&#039;t say &quot;collector&quot; - collecting and investing are two totally separate concepts) to know anything at all about the coins he buys then immediately makes disappear into his safe-deposit box where they won&#039;t be likely to be seen or appreciated by anyone again until he dies. And frankly, if you want to do investing, that&#039;s a fine pursuit - but you&#039;re likely to do a lot better in the long run with carefully chosen mutual funds or bonds. </p><p>If you think of collecting more like savoring fine food and wine, taking in a really great show or concert, or treating yourself to a spa weekend, you will be doing a LOT better in the long run. Those pursuits are all fine - but at the end, all you have is memories. At least with your coin purchases, you can savor the quality of the art or whatever it is that motivates your collecting (over and over) and still have the coins.</p><p>That suggestion made upthread that you try your best to forget nearly everything you currently know as a slab-investor in modern coins is really wise, even though probably not 100% achievable in reality. It is probably enough to consider ancients to be like house cats compared to horses, (it can work in both directions) - yes, they&#039;re both animals, they&#039;re both mammals, but their care and feeding and what, exactly, you appreciate about them is or can be vastly different.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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