CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz .... FEW TOPICS IN CLASSICAL NUMISMATICS provoke more ferocious argument than the grading of ancient Ancient Coins Writer Mike Markowitz elaborates on the topic of grading ancient coins.
“FEW TOPICS IN CLASSICAL NUMISMATICS provoke more ferocious argument than the grading of ancient coins.”
“Among collectors of classic American coins the 70-point “Sheldon Scale” is universally accepted as a standard. Machine-made modern coins in the highest grades have literally, never been touched by human hands. Ancient coins, made by hand, and mostly buried in dirt for centuries, can hardly be judged by the same standards.”
“Ancient gold coins spent most of their working lives stashed uneventfully in vaults or strong boxes, while ancient silver and copper alloy coins circulated vigorously for decades or even centuries, accumulating wear and tear in the process. Complex chemical reactions in soil (or within ceramic pots where so many ancients were buried) develop stable – or unstable – surface layers on the metal (called “patina” by numismatists) that greatly influence the appearance, and hence the value, of a coin. “Split grading” is often appropriate, because obverse and reverse sides of an ancient coin may have been struck with dies in different states of wear and experienced quite different conditions of preservation.”
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