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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 992142, member: 19463&quot;]I, too, have never heard of anyone certified in grading ancients (why whose authority are they certified?) but there are many people (dealers mostly) who are able to lay out a term that most people will accept so I guess they are certifiable.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Grade means nothing in ancients except when it means everything.&nbsp; What matters most is &#039;eye appeal&#039;.&nbsp; A coin can be worn but struck boldly and having a good looking surface or it can be unworn and scrappy looking.&nbsp; In this case, worn sells for more.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>For years mortals have tried to find a way of applying a simple number grade to ancients with varying degrees of success. The recent slabbers of choice start with the standard VF and apply a number 1-5 for strike and surface.&nbsp; It is a try and better than nothing but not something I&#039;d accept as an answer to the problem.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>When I did my grading page I identified two areas of note that I called Condition of Manufacture and Condition of Preservation but stopped short of suggesting that numbers rate the areas.&nbsp; I could have been famous but I chickened out.&nbsp; The two acknowledge that bad things happened to coins both at the mint and after leaving the mint.&nbsp; Modern graders (TPG) take the easy out by refusing to address coins that have suffered after the mint (AT, cleaned etc.) so they are spared comparing the value of a cleaned/retoned MS68 and a fully natural VF.&nbsp; ALL ancients have been cleaned so graders have to loosen up and rate coins according to how awful a job was done rather than pretending there is no elephant in the room.&nbsp; Anyone who has a really good answer for grading all ancients has yet to step forward and claim the prize.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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