Grading Byzantine Coins

As I understand, we cannot grade ancient coins using modern standards.

Modern machine made coins are very uniform and the grade theoretically is related to the wear after it left the mint. So a single number is normally sufficient to grade modern coins, since there is only the variable of wear.

With ancient coins there are more variables, such as:

1. How well struck it was (evenness, sharpness);
2. Centering of strike;
3. Quality of the flan;

So these qualities need to be considered in assigning a grade and hence to determine a price.

In this example, there does not appear to be a lot of wear, but it obviously has quite a few other things going against it, including the effects of being buried for some time.

Perhaps someone else has some guidance as to the price of this type in different grades.

Byzantine coins are among the hardest ancient type to grade. More effort was put into producing well struck gold coins and not much effort was put into the bronze issues. The strike on this Justin I follis SB-63 is typical of what you would see of the type. Other than one letter form the legend missing it has an excellent readable legend along with full reverse details which make it very east to attribute. The irregular flan doesn't look like a later break so I think it happen at the time of the strike and was good enough to put into circulation. Overall I would give it a grade of aVF worth the asking price.

Grading ancient coins is a very subjetive matter...
You must compare the coin with the other coins of that emission.
really it´s a matter of how beautiful that coin is...