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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 971245, member: 19463&quot;]$23.50 strikes me as what that coin would have brought several years ago (before anyone was slabbing ancients) so it is hard to imagine anyone was valuing the slab at all if you bought it for that figure.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Grading ancients is not easy and there are many opinions that conflict.&nbsp; I tried to address the question with a series of pages several years ago:</p><p><a href="http://dougsmith.ancients.info/grade.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://dougsmith.ancients.info/grade.html" rel="nofollow">http://dougsmith.ancients.info/grade.html</a></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>In addition to the &#039;Standard&#039; grading, I listed a number of more important factors separated into those that existed when the coin left the mint which I called &#039;Conditions of Manufacture&#039; and those which happened to the coin (other than &#039;honest&#039; wear) which I called &#039;Conditions of Preservation&#039;.&nbsp; I was unable at that time to develop what I considered a satisfactory numbering system for these factors since we all may differ on how much each might affect the desirability of a coin.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>NGC slabs made an effort in this direction by adding their ratings for strike and surface.&nbsp; These were included in my lists but there were very many other factors I considered significant that a meaningful grade would be a&nbsp; ridiculous string of numerals.&nbsp; The NGC system is a lot better than the ANACS adaptation of the Sheldon numbers (&#039;20&#039;) but I still see more confusion than order.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>[ATTACH]92616.vB[/ATTACH][ATTACH]92617.vB[/ATTACH]</p><p>Compare the two coins above to the coin that started this thread.&nbsp; Both have better laurel wreath detail but the huge flan split and the porosity make neither as desirable as the good looking Severus Alexander.&nbsp; Were all three the same type and ruler, which would you buy?&nbsp; Like I said, grading ancients has some issues and we may not all agree on the matter but this may be a case where F beats VF.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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