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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;IdesOfMarch01, post: 1612242, member: 39084&quot;]This statement about applying modern-coin-grading standards to ancient coins, while it may seem logical to collectors of modern coins, really doesn&#039;t make sense.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Think about this analogy: if you were buying an old car -- say, from the 1930s or 1920s -- would you apply modern metrics to evaluate it?&nbsp; Would you test its 0 - 60 MPH acceleration time?&nbsp; Measure its tailpipe emissions?&nbsp; Crash test it to see how well it holds up in a fully frontal crash?&nbsp; Of course not.&nbsp; You&#039;d evaluate the old car in metrics that make sense relative to how old cars are evaluated - rarity, condition, desirability, demand, etc.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ancient coins have been catalogued and evaluated by their own standards for, literally, hundreds of years.&nbsp; The metrics by which modern coins are graded are appropriate for coins stamped by high pressure devices that mass-produce these coins.&nbsp; But they&#039;re simply not appropriate to apply to ancients.&nbsp; It&#039;s not that there are no similarities; certainly, the quality of a struck coin can be poor for a modern coin as well as an ancient.&nbsp; But while there may be hundreds or thousands of MS 65 1909 S VDB Lincoln cents, there are NO equal-quality Ides of March denarii among the fewer than 200 known.&nbsp; Modern grading standards make no sense for these coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Also, no serious collector will ever purchase a high-quality ancient coin that has been slabbed, unless he/she is an idiot.&nbsp; Any dealer purchasing for such a collector will insist on removing the coin from the slab and visually inspecting it himself prior to recommending the purchase to the collector.&nbsp; Even for modestly priced ancients, slabbing adds no value except in the rare circumstance where the purchaser may be a relative or complete novice to the hobby, and is not able to have a trusted dealer or friend validate the authenticity of the coin.&nbsp; In this circumstance, it may make some sense to purchase a slabbed ancient coin, but if the novice collector ends up expanding his/her collection, he&#039;ll soon find out that he&#039;d much prefer to have the coins out of the slab. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>There is simply no way to describe the wonder and tactile sense of holding a 2000-year-old Roman bronze sestertius in your own hand. Try it sometime -- you&#039;ll quickly understand why ancients are rarely slabbed.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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