Grading Ancient Coins - Tutorial 

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"Nobody needs an expert or a number to tell them what they like"

I would love to just sit down with you for a day and go over my collection. Your knowledge is truly amazing.

Personally, the quality of ancients never mattered much to me. Ancients are meant to be handled, and high quality surface conditions seems counterintuitive to that. Of course, once in a while, no one can reject a mint state tetradrachm or sestertius.

Thank you so much for this. Even with slabbed coins - sometimes I'm not really sure how they decide what to grade them. It doesn't always seem consistent.

That French medieval coin looks incredible. Why is it that I always get the urge to collect another coin immediately after seeing it on your channel?

Eye appeal has always meant a great deal to me.

~34:50 (Felicitas reverse): One good way to assess weak strike vs circulation wear is that circulation wear impacts the higher points of the design, whereas a weak strike impacts (pun not intended, but liked!) the lowest points of the design. This Felicitas reverse is an excellent example of a weak strike; her robes show some crisp detail, and the left border is sharp, but the background details are ghostly. This was a great video!

I really enjoyed the videos and I learned a lot about numismatics, I am very grateful. I would really like to see a video someday about coins repainted with artificial patina, advantages and disadvantages, whether it is good or bad for coins, etc.

As you mentioned w/ your denarius of Otho, some collectors (for budgetary reasons) have to overlook condition of some rare coins... I was able to pick up a denarius of Caligula, and it definitely saw a lot of circulation, and was affected by the soil in which it laid, but hey, it's a silver coin of Caligula, and I'm not a hedge fund manager!

Grading is a nice guide but in the end, its all about what your eye likes and wallet can handle. I have seen coins graded and in my novice opinion be spot on, too high or too low. Just need to look at alot of coins and train yourself.

I agree grades aren't particularly meaningful when it comes to ancients- I never even note them when reading a description. For me as well, the image tells me what I need to know and just comparing other specimens helps put anything into context when it comes to values. That all being said, this was an interesting video- I had always wondered what the grades meant. Thanks!

Love the background music. Reminds me of Age of Empires o Caesar like videogames...

Great video! As someone who has collected coins for over twenty years and started in modern US coins and now is very involved in ancients, this video couldn’t be more spot on. I’d recommend to many collectors to familiarise themselves with the science of modern coin grading and this can help add understanding to the art of ancients grading. For me, the grading is where the collector shines (the history is where the numismatist shines and they aren’t mutually exclusive). Ancient grading is so nuanced and this video did a great job reducing that nuance down to the core concepts. Also provided me some good basic refreshers. Loved it! Also, not to flatter, but the guy on this channel has a strong eye and is nice and conservative in his ratings. I’ve seen people rate coins as MS because it’s chemically cleaned and shiny…. 🤦‍♂️

Highly enjoyable presentation. I appreciate the way you slowly move the coin in the hand, so the viewer can see it from slightly different angles. As a collector of ancient and medieval coins for over 40 years I agree with everything you say. One thing I might add is the tendency to over grade (for example describe a coin that is really VF as EF) is more pronounced the rarer the coin is. I fully understand that a dealer is in business, and there is naturally a need to make enough profit to survive, but to avoid buyer's remorse one should look at a rare coin's images very, very carefully and come up with your own grade. Better yet if you can physically visit a dealer or auction house and view the coin directly. There is a saying 'wonderful coin to see in the hand' that applies especially to the hand struck ancients. Coins are a 3D object, so are always going to be different to a 2D image when seen in the hand.

I've found the grades given to hammered coins by many of the grading companies to be incredibly inconsistent. In the area I focus on, I've even seen contemporary counterfeits graded as genuine pieces, coins assigned the wrong catalogue number, dates and even the wrong country.

Thanks for taking the time to explain this, it’s always been a little confusing to me, as grading seems to be quite inconsistent sometimes, and for ancient coins it is pretty subjective. I just buy whatever I like the look of, but within my budget…especially if it’s a coin of Hadrian😊

Extremely useful and informative video - thanks for sharing with us!

Brilliant thanks Leo👍🙂

I notice you say “die crack” when the defect seems to be in the coin’s flan/planchet, not the die. I thought these were called “flan cracks”. To me, a die crack is when the iron die that struck the coin is damaged. Am I wrong, or are the terms interchangeably used? I have a sestertius of Maximimus Thrax that has an offset going diagonally across the coin that looks like the die was almost ready to break in two.

Thank You very much for such informative videos ! 😊 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Another Excellent Video! Thank you.

I love watching your channel

Thanks for the vid

Great video as always

if you ever end up local to me we must certainly meet up to discuss coins

I've mentioned it before. Only my two gold solidi have been sent for grading to authenticate them as I'd bought from from a small local coin dealer many years ago. Just needed that piece of mind considering how many fakes are floating around.

Thank you

Is this background music from Total War? LOL

Excellent video! I believe that the opinion of a grading service is no more qualified in telling me how much I should appreciate the piece than my own sensibilities for any coin up until the 1800s, or in some cases even later on. I am fond of HRE Taler and particularly the earlier mints (say anything before Joseph I) are just as unique and individual as its more ancient predecessors.

People should care less about grades, and trust their eyes and sense of whats beautiful

Just curious, but have any ancient coin dies survived to the present day?

That quadrans is amazing I recently got the same coin at auction just not that one and can see clearly between the one featured and the dies on mine. Although does anyone know what the DES IT means on the legend haven't had much luck in sear or online translating this. Thanks for the video.

This video is excellent. Thank you very much! I would value your opinion on the NGC Ancients grading system………

Hello 🙏🙏🙏🙏

🍯🐝🌻

is minting an ancient coin a thing?

Is that a sestertius of Gallienus at 10:29? Leo, please lable featured coins with some text! Thanks :)

The coin at 32:10 is actually not an Islamic coin. It's a coin minted during the Sasanian Empire which was Zoroastrian