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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;IdesOfMarch01, post: 3102549, member: 39084&quot;]My hope is that you&#039;ll take the time to read all the threads and posts on this site regarding the cons (and, yes, the pros -- there are some, at least for beginners) of buying slabbed ancient coins.&nbsp; But in the event that you decide to take the plunge before finishing this reading, and before you&#039;ve absorbed the collected knowledge of the collectors on this site, I&#039;ll offer a succinct summary of my viewpoint on this topic.</p><p><br /></p><p>Personally, I love ancient coins for their history and artistry.&nbsp; Slabbing an ancient coin does nothing whatsoever to enhance a coin&#039;s appeal in these two areas.&nbsp; I don&#039;t care about the TPG&#039;s opinion of the coin&#039;s condition or grade, nor do I care about its judgment on the artistry.&nbsp; So slabs add no value for me.</p><p><br /></p><p>In one respect, I&#039;m fortunate to work with a dealer who helps find coins and spot tooling that I wouldn&#039;t necessarily detect, so I really don&#039;t run the risk of buying a forged coin (with this exception: <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/hadrian-aureus-a-tale-of-subtle-differences.283959/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/hadrian-aureus-a-tale-of-subtle-differences.283959/">https://www.cointalk.com/threads/hadrian-aureus-a-tale-of-subtle-differences.283959/</a>).&nbsp; But even a novice collector can minimize this risk by buying only from dealers who guarantee their coins (e.g., VCoins and Sixbid auctioneers).&nbsp; Slabbed ancient coins offer some security to a novice collector -- in my opinion, the <i>only</i> plus of buying a slabbed ancient -- but note that TPGs DON&#039;T guarantee authenticity of the ancient coins they slab.</p><p><br /></p><p>Spend some time perusing VCoins (<a href="http://www.vcoins.com" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.vcoins.com" rel="nofollow">www.vcoins.com</a>) and various auctions (<a href="http://www.sixbid.com" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.sixbid.com" rel="nofollow">www.sixbid.com</a>) to get a sense of which ancients appeal to you and which ones don&#039;t.&nbsp; You&#039;ll get some direction from doing so, and feel free to ask questions on this site about coins that you find appealing.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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