To free or not to free?

I find it quite refreshing to see a post from a relatively young collector who can so correctly summarize the situation.

Slabbed ancients were not intended to sell to people who already collected and have studied the coins but to open up the field to people who knew nothing about them and might be afraid of dipping even one toe into such shark infested waters. Fortunately, NGC hired staff to handle their product who could make very few errors. Unfortunately there are a dozen other companies with varying degrees of expertise whose main attribute is owning slab sealing equipment.

What I will never understand is the number of people who post to threads in this Ancients section that do not collect ancient coins but feel the need to tell those who do what they are doing wrong. I hope they all could hear the best part of the Mr.MonkeySwag96 post:

Grade isn't everything. Rarity isn't everything. Style, Historicity, Beauty, Oddity, Provenance and I'm sure several that escape me at the moment all contribute to the mix. NGC made a step in the right direction when they added the separate strike and surface ratings but, I believe wisely, chose not to string a dozen other factors out behind their letter grades. That would have confused their target audience and the idea was to attract them, not to scare them off. I would have preferred they not have kept the 'VF and friends' grade but started over from scratch but that would have attracted fewer new people. Their business is selling a service to those who have money to buy it. It appears business is good. I do wonder if in 50 years when today's young collectors are no longer young, how many ancient coins will still be slabbed. Will it take over completely as it seems to have done US or will a coin in a slab be are rare collector's item like today we have from the days when the Gonzagas placed their countermarks on coins. We might even differ on which we would rather have. This Good Fine with inlaid eagle
https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=66111
or the same coin mint state in plastic.

 

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