A Reminder: NGC Does Not Guarantee The Authenticity Of Ancient Coins

Maybe His Holiness should go into the authenticity biz...

If ten coin collectors each brought an NGC slabbed MS-65 1921 Peace dollar and we cracked them open and lay them in velvet trays on a table in no particular order ........
Would the owners be able to find their own coin ?
Perhaps half I think
Even an MS-65 can have a tiny blemish that makes it "different"
Now do the same with any ancient coin preceding Constantine.
I think they all could be found by their owners
(provided the owners are real collectors and not just armchair "trophy" hunters)

But that is why slabbing ancients can seem offensive. The buyers very often are simply trophy hunters who seek to own something and not actually "have" something.

I recently acquired my first Julius Cæsar (a dupondius)
After nearly 45 years collecting I figured I better get a move on or else die disappointed !
Not that I couldn't afford one ......
But I didn't want to pay through the nose nor did I want to buy something that looked like an old oatmeal cookie
So after 43 years actually I attained nervana
I might have "owned" one long ago
But now I actually "have" a Julius Cæsar
And I could pick it out of a crowd without any difficulty

Medieval coinage is especially tricky since, for some countries, a wide variety of contemporary counterfeits of common types circulated at the same time as their officially minted counterparts. This makes "authentic" very difficult to define and without access to XRF and similar technology it can be nearly impossible to authenticate a coin approaching 100% certainty.

I prefer my ancients unslabbed and don't own any examples that are slabbed currently. I agree that it plays off fears of "fakes" by somehow suggesting that the NGC coin must be real since it's in a holder.

WOW !
Very much caveat emptor.

Certainly true, and I did state, "...NGC will only encapsulate coins they believe are authentic." But the point I try to make is that some collectors take the "guarantee" in Numismatic Guarantee Corporation to mean "guarantee" of authenticity - which it is not, a point which they (NGC) go to great lengths to clarify.

A troubling case study: In 2016 an NGC encased, rather odd looking Vologases V tetradrachm appeared on the market. I immediately thought it "off" and, if I had to guess, would say it was a cast modern fake of questionable style for the obverse portrait.

Lo and behold Schatz - one of the most prolific collectors of Parthian coins in the world and an established voice of authority on the series - posted pics of the coin (from its listing) at another forum, expressing how "peculiar" and "strange" it appeared. At that point Alwin, owner of his own amazing Parthian collection and a leading expert on the series - and site owner and author of Parthika.fr, an excellent Parthian coin research site - chimed in with observations about the coin's off-style and to express his doubts about its authenticity. At that point another knowledgeable collector wrote about the off style and that he suspected the coin was cast. I did not comment, but I held the same belief.

Simply put, that coin should never have been slabbed. Two of the world's top Parthian experts voiced doubts about it in that thread - and echoed thoughts I had. Would it have passed David Sear's muster? We'll never know, of course...but I really suspect it would not have. Even though Parthians represent a specialized area, it would not have taken much research to see some of the red flags in this instance. That coin was one that slipped past the NGC goalies.

Coinnewbie3;

When you posted about the D. Iunius Brutus Albinus. Denarius circa 48 BC for sale that is slabbed, I really was not sure of the intent. As, are you thinking the coin is not real? Because if you are saying that grader at the NGC got this wrong, then you are bringing up your level to an established graded at NGC, which of course you can if you feel you can be considered to compete at that that level of expertise. But remember, on past strings you quote references to why different coins are wrong and you cite people like Barry Murphy who is actually an NGC grader. So the circular thought pattern can be hard to maintain and in my opinion I really don't think if an NGC grader accepts the coin, does not certify authenticity of course, but accepts a coin as their opinion as real enough to slab, well just like in chess I'd probably usually default to accepting the coin is probably very real and my opinion just won't be recognized as at a level to challenge an NGC grader. As for this coin, it is not that rare, an acsearch shows a lot of them in past sales. So I see no reason that NGC graded coin you post would ever be suspect. Bob L. mentions a time when he felt an NGC coin was not real above in this string, but I think Bob L would also most likely accept most to almost all NGC slabbed coins are authentic. If the NGC graders like Barry Murphy are to be questioned, then that whole coin forgery network and lists of past dealers where people cite sell coins that are not real by referencing Barry Murphy's expert work simply can't be accepted as they can't on one hand use Barry Murphy's reputation to discredit a different coin but then discredit the NGC coins people like Barry Murphy give opinions on.