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<p>[QUOTE="IdesOfMarch01, post: 3115469, member: 39084"]When I first started collecting ancient coins a little over ten years ago, my dealer gave me David Vagi's two-book set <i>Coinage and History of the Roman Empire</i>. This was an excellent background and introduction to the hobby, and I especially valued the first 185 pages of volume two, where Vagi goes through his <i>Numismatic Introduction</i> to Roman coins. </p><p><br /></p><p>On page 175 Vagi lists the grading terminology for ancients:</p><p><br /></p><p>Good</p><p>Fine</p><p>Very Fine</p><p>Extremely Fine</p><p>Mint State (FDC)</p><p><br /></p><p>My dealer further helped me understand that within these grades are modifiers like "good VF" -- better than average VF but not quite up to EF; "about EF" -- better than good VF but a touch below full EF condition' "good EF" -- even better than average EF; etc. These "good [condition]" and "about [condition]" modifiers are useful and for me, cover everything practical that I need to know about an ancient coin's condition without having the coin in hand.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now compare NGC's grading scale for <i>all</i> coins, that it applies to (forces on?) ancients:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]791449[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>There are many grades in this scale that aren't in Vagi's scale, and after having spent over ten years collecting and looking at ancient coins, I see no practical value in trying to force this number of grades on ancient coins. Once an ancient coin's condition is generally classified under Vagi's scale, the real decision depends on so many other factors that further refining the grading scale (i.e., using NGC's classification) just seems useless to me.</p><p><br /></p><p>Yes, it's true that NGC also includes evaluation on characteristics like strike, centering, etc., but I challenge anyone who has been collecting ancients for more than a few years to tell me what NGC's evaluation provides that the collector couldn't better evaluate himself/herself about the coin, either from a high-quality picture or having the coin in hand. Really, does NGC's description of TIF's coin above "<i>XF, 4/5 strike, 4/5 surface"</i> remotely begin to tell you anything about what makes her coin such a fantastic example of its type?</p><p><br /></p><p>I'm curious: those of you who have found value in NGC's descriptions -- value that you yourself wouldn't have discerned -- when buying a slabbed ancient coin, I'd find it informative if you could show some actual examples with an explanation of what you learned from the slab's information.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="IdesOfMarch01, post: 3115469, member: 39084"]When I first started collecting ancient coins a little over ten years ago, my dealer gave me David Vagi's two-book set [I]Coinage and History of the Roman Empire[/I]. This was an excellent background and introduction to the hobby, and I especially valued the first 185 pages of volume two, where Vagi goes through his [I]Numismatic Introduction[/I] to Roman coins. On page 175 Vagi lists the grading terminology for ancients: Good Fine Very Fine Extremely Fine Mint State (FDC) My dealer further helped me understand that within these grades are modifiers like "good VF" -- better than average VF but not quite up to EF; "about EF" -- better than good VF but a touch below full EF condition' "good EF" -- even better than average EF; etc. These "good [condition]" and "about [condition]" modifiers are useful and for me, cover everything practical that I need to know about an ancient coin's condition without having the coin in hand. Now compare NGC's grading scale for [I]all[/I] coins, that it applies to (forces on?) ancients: [ATTACH=full]791449[/ATTACH] There are many grades in this scale that aren't in Vagi's scale, and after having spent over ten years collecting and looking at ancient coins, I see no practical value in trying to force this number of grades on ancient coins. Once an ancient coin's condition is generally classified under Vagi's scale, the real decision depends on so many other factors that further refining the grading scale (i.e., using NGC's classification) just seems useless to me. Yes, it's true that NGC also includes evaluation on characteristics like strike, centering, etc., but I challenge anyone who has been collecting ancients for more than a few years to tell me what NGC's evaluation provides that the collector couldn't better evaluate himself/herself about the coin, either from a high-quality picture or having the coin in hand. Really, does NGC's description of TIF's coin above "[I]XF, 4/5 strike, 4/5 surface"[/I] remotely begin to tell you anything about what makes her coin such a fantastic example of its type? I'm curious: those of you who have found value in NGC's descriptions -- value that you yourself wouldn't have discerned -- when buying a slabbed ancient coin, I'd find it informative if you could show some actual examples with an explanation of what you learned from the slab's information.[/QUOTE]
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