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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;lordmarcovan, post: 3103127, member: 10461&quot;]Hi, Mike.</p><p><br /></p><p>Nice having you over here.&nbsp; I know some of your coin forum history so I know the culture you&#039;re coming from.&nbsp; Spent the better part of two decades in that culture myself.</p><p><br /></p><p>As you may have seen, the topic of ancient coins in slabs is a contentious one, and merely uttering the word &quot;slab&quot; on this particular forum is an invitation to walk into the proverbial lions&#039; den while smeared in bacon grease.</p><p><br /></p><p>The &quot;lions&quot; in this case (ancient coin slab-haters) do have a number of excellent points, perhaps the best of which is that entombing a coin in plastic robs one of the tactile enjoyment of holding it in your hand and directly &quot;touching history&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>(Holding and touching an ancient coin is totally OK and usually safe, unlike the way you&#039;d treat a modern proof coin or Gem BU DMPL Morgan dollar.)</p><p><br /></p><p>I agree with [USER=81808]@Aethelred[/USER] that it is a matter of personal preference.&nbsp; I personally slab my ancients mostly for consistency&#039;s sake, since the rest of my collection is slabbed.&nbsp; But if I collected <i>only</i> ancients, I would definitely skip the slabs.</p><p><br /></p><p>Note also that with a single exception, I have not bought my ancients <i>already</i> slabbed.&nbsp; That&#039;s a surefire way to pay too much.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Generally</i> speaking, &quot;naked is better&quot; with ancients, but slabs - at least NGC - do offer the benefit of a professional opinion on authenticity.&nbsp; NGC will not and cannot offer an <i>absolute</i> guarantee, <i>but</i> they also will not knowingly encapsulate anything they find questionable, so they do offer an added layer of protection against fakes.</p><p><br /></p><p>And slabs can look nice with certain display methods.&nbsp; They can also boost a coin&#039;s resale value and widen the potential market for it, albeit more within the general numismatic community than within the insular community of diehard, traditionalist ancient coin collectors, who will only sneer at the plastic and wave their crackout tools.</p><p><br /></p><p>Once you have weighed the pros and cons of ancients in slabs (and there are both), and made your decision, then stick to your guns if you decide to go the slab route, and do not listen to the growling of the lions who tell you slabs are all bad.&nbsp; Or if you become a lion yourself, and fall into the <i>anti</i>-slab camp, then try not to growl so much at those who make the opposite decision.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Suum cuique.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p>Too many people take this issue <i>way</i> too seriously, if you ask me.&nbsp; I&#039;m not suggesting it&#039;s <i>totally</i> unimportant, but some of the emotional responses people have are way out of proportion.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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