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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 3104115, member: 19463&quot;]You would be making a great mistake to do so.&nbsp; I am one of ten thousand people who have some reasonable experience in some limited areas of ancient coinage.&nbsp; I have not anything approaching the level of general experience that would be needed to fill such a position.&nbsp; For example, in my life I have touched about half a dozen aurei the most recent of which was about twenty years ago.&nbsp; I don&#039;t collect them; I don&#039;t ask dealers at shows to let me play in their stock.&nbsp;&nbsp; In my life, I have held one dekadrachm of Athens which I was told at the time and now have no reason to doubt was authentic.&nbsp; Why would anyone ask the opinion of such an amateur let alone pay for it? </p><p><br /></p><p>Unlike Barry Murphy who recently showed us a million dollars with of loose change from his desk, my experience is limited to the coins I collect --- the cheap stuff.&nbsp; Considering the cost to slab coins is not terribly much less than the average cost of the coins in my collection, I might be safer to ask about trashy denarii of Septimius Severus than, lets say, those of Didius Julianus. </p><p><br /></p><p>There is another thing that I don&#039;t recall seeing mentioned here is what I am sure is a regular occurrence at any TPG.&nbsp; People might be more likely to submit coins they doubt or coins with problems they hope to sneak through and get certified.&nbsp; Am I prepared to sniff out the coins with Bond-o surfaces and tooling and make a call between over cleaned and lightly tooled?&nbsp; Have I memorized every fake posted online like medical students memorize body parts?&nbsp; Do I know the style of the known master forgers well enough that I might sense their next handiwork?&nbsp; I can have an opinion on such things and can walk away from coins about which I had even a slight doubt not worried that I was erring on the side of caution.&nbsp; You can&#039;t do this too often when you are in the business.&nbsp; People are aying yo to be right.&nbsp; What is an acceptable level of error by an authenticator of ancient coins? 1% would make you a laughing stock.&nbsp; .01%? That would be one in ten thousand or a mistake every day or two.&nbsp; That would result in a parade of Coin Talk posts entitled &quot;Look what they did now.&quot;&nbsp; One in a million? I do not know what I think let alone what you should think.&nbsp; I would love to know how often two graders, both experts in their field, bump heads and disagree on a coin.&nbsp; There will always be room for opinions and changing your opinions when required.&nbsp; Ask the people at the British Museum when that second Domitianus II turned up.&nbsp; &quot;I&#039;m glad we didn&#039;t throw the first one in the rubbish bin.&quot; </p><p><br /></p><p>I am comfortable with the situation of being less than 100% sure of half a dozen of the coins in my collection.&nbsp; That is one in 500 or so so dangerously close to what I termed &#039;laughing stock&#039; .&nbsp; If I were selling those coins, I would not offer them to just anyone but only people who knew enough to understand the potential problem.&nbsp; I suggest those of you who aspire being the next grader hired by NGC (or even ANACS???) be serious and ask where you plan to get the required background training.&nbsp; I know I am not on the list (short or long) of people under consideration.&nbsp; We each do the best we can and that is all we can do.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I agree. Buy a few, post a few and wonder if the coins will receive wide acceptance here.&nbsp; Perhaps someone here will say you need to change your name to &#039;Johnnie Red&#039; or start buying better coins. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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