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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 4299044, member: 19463&quot;]These three demonstrate well the surface grading standards of NGC 3/5,4/5 and 5/5.&nbsp; It reminds me of a gas gauge on a car that takes a lot longer to go from full to half than from half to fumes.&nbsp; I wish we had an example here from 1/5 and 2/5.&nbsp; There are many, many worse surfaced coins and most of us own them rather than perfect coins like that Philip I.&nbsp; I have one of Philip II which I would expect to get 1/5 mostly because they do not have a 0/5.&nbsp; I do not own a slabbed 1/5 coin.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1094173[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I do have a 2/5 (removed from plastic by a previous owner but it is an Otho from Antioch and hard to compare to these later tetradrachms.&nbsp; The dealer I bought it from could not see the scratches that made it 2/5 when the coin was still in plastic but they are certainly there when you blow up the coin in a photo.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1094172[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I do believe that NGC should have used a 10 point scale rather than 5 so it would be possible to separate the really abysmal surfaced coin (corroded, scrubbed etc.) from coins like Mat&#039;s (a 2/5???) for example.&nbsp; Perhaps they realized that it is not worth slabbing a coin that will only go 3/5 or less since people who buy plastic tend to avoid the low numbers.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m curious about that, too.&nbsp; Of the three this is the only Rome mint and only officina marked coin so the line is very appropriate.&nbsp; Not all of the MONVRB coins were so marked.&nbsp; Mine is another Rome mint 2/5? hopeful but has no officina letter.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1094188[/ATTACH] </p><p>Grades are opinions but when they are in plastic, their importance is magnified.&nbsp; That explains why the previous owner cracked out the Otho.&nbsp; I am glad he did since it saved me the labor of cracking for my own reason.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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