How to grade ancient coins video by Classical Numismatics

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Here's a lighter topic for tonight.  The excellent youtube channel Classical Numismatics put out another interesting video, about how ancient coins are graded.

He often shows some really nice coins, but I was pumped that my modest Otho is a bit better, although no worldbeater.  I can thank cheaper 1990's coin prices for that.  I wonder if his suffers from finders' gashes?

[Salomons Cat]

I enjoy his videos as well! 🙂

However, I believe that grading ancient coins has become obsolete for several reasons:

• We now have detailed photographs.
• For ancient coins, where every single one is unique, grading remains subjective. For instance, NGC often assigns AU or MS grades to coins that I would only rate as VF at best. Many such coins are listed on eBay for hundreds of dollars, but without the NGC grading, they wouldn't hold much value.
• For ancient coins, grading is often more of a sales tactic than a means of conveying useful information.

And finally, there are coins in lower grade that just have great eye appeal.

For example, this Nero is one of my favorite coins. I show it as often as possible 😁 If I was NGC, I would probably give it a ChVF plus Star. So, there are other Neros that would get MS or AU. But for me, this coin has still one of the best portraits of Nero that I have ever seen.

Edited July 14 by Salomons Cat

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Yes, I believe he himself makes the admission that grading ancients is a bit irrelevant.  Grades were more relevant in the days of Allen Berman's 'cheap ancients' print ads in the Celator, which were possibly months old by the time I viewed them in the college library.  Many of my rarest/most obscure Byzantine coins to date came from his lists.

I concur.  That is a splendid portrait of Nero.

[Al Kowsky]

For collectors with many years of experience buying raw ancient coins with confidence isn't a problem, but collectors new to the hobby would be wise to get an opinion from a seasoned collector or get the coin slabbed if it's expensive. Slabbed coins generally get higher prices at auction than raw coins 😉.

[Al Kowsky]

10 hours ago, Salomons Cat said:

I enjoy his videos as well! 🙂

However, I believe that grading ancient coins has become obsolete for several reasons:

• We now have detailed photographs.
• For ancient coins, where every single one is unique, grading remains subjective. For instance, NGC often assigns AU or MS grades to coins that I would only rate as VF at best. Many such coins are listed on eBay for hundreds of dollars, but without the NGC grading, they wouldn't hold much value.
• For ancient coins, grading is often more of a sales tactic than a means of conveying useful information.

And finally, there are coins in lower grade that just have great eye appeal.

For example, this Nero is one of my favorite coins. I show it as often as possible 😁 If I was NGC, I would probably give it a ChVF plus Star. So, there are other Neros that would get MS or AU. But for me, this coin has still one of the best portraits of Nero that I have ever seen.

Salomons Cat, Your coin looks like a Ch VF, but I'd hesitate giving it a star * because of the scratch in the obverse field 🧐. For comparison here is a Nero tet from my collection.

[Salomons Cat]

3 hours ago, Al Kowsky said:

Salomons Cat, Your coin looks like a Ch VF, but I'd hesitate giving it a star * because of the scratch in the obverse field 🧐. For comparison here is a Nero tet from my collection.

Interesting... I don't care about that scratch at all. Tastes are just different. You could offer me any kind of Neros with AU or MS grading - I haven't seen any so far that I would trade against mine. Not even the $9000 specimen that we have once talked about 🙂

Edited July 14 by Salomons Cat

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

As Aaron Berk once mentioned and Classical Numismatics reiterates, artistic quality (and by inference, personal satisfaction) also goes into what's important to the ancients buyer.

I believe CN graded the beautiful Hadrian denarius as an EF.  I'd grade it at a very bold VF (there seemed to be a flat spot on the beard).  The flan cracks were somewhat irrelevant to me (except I'd worry about it breaking in transit).  EF schmee-ef, I'd be proud to have that wonderful example of a Hadrian denarius.

And then there's a gray area.  Like with my Tiberius Apsimar solidus, my favorite gold coin.  A flat and double strike detracts somewhat from the obverse but by wear it's at least an AU.  It's by far the most mirrorlike gold coin that I've ever handled.

The scratch on SC's Nero is minimally distracting and probably doesn't show up too much under normal lighting.  On the other hand, the cleaning scratches on my Heraclius hexagrams are distracting and even I could have done a better job of cleaning.  The coins show far more detail than average examples but the botched cleaning job and horn silver caused them to be very cheap.

[Prieure de Sion]

15 hours ago, Salomons Cat said:

But for me, this coin has still one of the best portraits of Nero that I have ever seen.

In my opinion - thats true...

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

I disagreed with some of the EF gradings in the video, but that's semantics.  What's important is, do I like the coin and can I afford it?

My collection has a Hadrian of similar wear but it is deeply marred by crystallization spalling.

[Phil Anthos]

19 minutes ago, Nerosmyfavorite68 said:

What's important is, do I like the coin and can I afford it?

word.

I have only two grades that matter... do I like it, do I not.