Why ancient collectors hate slabs

The only slab we can not avoid is in the Morgue.

 

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coz they have brains. it makes no sense to slab them IMHO

 

This is why I like this CT community so much!

 

A lot of people do feel mistakenly comfortable with their abilities to detect Ancient counterfeits, but the reality is different. (Read the link from my post above.) Plunking down that kind of cash requires either confidence in one's ability or faith that the dealer is not only reputable but knowledgeable.

That's where Dave Vagi at NGC Ancients comes in. Although one might quibble about the merits of grading Ancients, one cannot question Vagi's experience and reputation for assessing for authenticity. He is not hesitant about returning a coin "Questionable Authenticity" if he has any doubt. He is both an author and an Ancient enthusiast. His opinion is worthy of the utmost respect.

As said before, you can always break a coin out of its plastic coffin.

guy

 

He is a very nice man, but i would not place him in my top ten list of ancient coin authorities i know. My biggest issue is probably not his idea, is US grading for ancients. Then it comes up the slab is not even guaranteeing authenticity......

To Vess, yes i feel completely comfortable buying from a large reputable firm that much. In fact, i just paid over $1300 to one last week, and no slab.

 

Well I for one I am grateful for asking questions here and reading posts before I jumped into ancients when I started. I think I am lucky I didnt go headfirst on ebay & buy an ancient slabbed or something without knowing anything about them like I see so many do & paying dearly for it.:hail:

 

That's the ticket. :thumb:

guy

 

Is there a list of these "reputable" dealers somewhere for those of us getting started? I have a hard time hating slabs even for ancients. They are a great storage, labeling and verification device.

When the collector eventually passes away with hundreds maybe thousands of ancients with no slabs, are the wife, children, brothers experts in ancients? Anybody? Not likely.

In all likelihood some kid will take them to a dealer who might not know anything either and take whatever theyre willing to give them. Wow, $100 for all this junk! Awesome. You cant tell me this hasnt played out a million times.

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Nope, that doesn't really happen. The dealers tend to keep in touch with their customers, particularly the better ones. And even if the coins were in slabs, what's to say that someone who "knows nothing about ancients" won't just offer them rock bottom?

The thing that most people don't realize about this whole debate is that the dealers are at least as knowledgeable and honest as NGC. More importantly, when serious ancient coins are reviewed for authenticity, it is by the dealers. Things get passed around and reviewed at shows all the time. If a top-dollar coin ends up in an NGC slab, I guarantee the outcome was already known beforehand.

Has anyone considered the real reason that slabs are so popular? It's not for insurance or authenticity. Not for grade or preservation. No, slabs are successful and popular because they are a marketing device. This is why MS 6x Morgans sell for more than MS 6(x-1) Morgans. This is why you the only ancients that you regularly see in slabs are the common things that are available to dealers in bulk..

 

...and that is exactly what the OP wants to buy. He does not want any of the thousands upon thousands of varieties of unusual ancients but he wants something available in bulk to dealers that can be likened to others of its kind at a set price. It works for modern coins because there are so few variations. It is more difficult with so many ancients. Common Byzantine gold and high grade denarii of Severus Alexander might just have a place in slabs. Coins that do not come in just a few grades will be harder to force into five grades with five levels of strike and five levels of surface. Can we equate 100 different Augustus/Agrippa crocodile dupondii each deserving VF 3/3? That is one example that comes to mind. When it is time to sell, you will still need a dealer to evaluate the individual coin for 95% of all ancients. For the 5% that fit the slabbing concept, perhaps there will be good results. There will never be a Red Book for ancients and never a condition census list assigning a sale price for each of the million ancient options. As long as you need a dealer with a clue to market the coins, the slabs will be just so much plastic.

I do agree that the cases are cute although a box of 3000 of them will be hard to carry. What makes them objectionable is not being able to open them to examine, photograph, handle, weigh and enjoy the item trapped inside.

 

he's waiting to grade your coins.................................

 

I just bought a 1797 Cartwheel Two Pence valued at about US$200 and the first thing I did was to let my two daughters hold the raw coin in their bare hands.

Their eyes lit up when I told them it was 172 years older than their daddy.

The price I pay for coins is for the coin and the experience.

It doesn't work with them with slabs and even the ASE I have in Air Tites.

 

well done, a beautiful coin like the cartwheel deserves to be handled and appreciated, not locked in a coffin forever.......

 

Edge viewing is essential for establishing authenticity. see points above for TPG's inability to guarantee this

(I've put in comments as well - but they are scattered throughout the quote - that's my inability to use IT)