Proper Grading Of Ancient Coins?

Ancient coins are graded a little different the other types, only four grades are used, Good, Fine, Very Fine, and Extra Fine. There are an number of factors that are also used in the processing of grading this type, Corrosion, color, toning, centering, etc. From what I can see on this coin, I would grade it at VF- off center strike. Please feel free to post as many as you like.

I'd grade this one gVF; the wear looks EF detials, but it's a bit too off-centre and the corrosion spots on the reverse are too prominent for an EF grade.

Personally, I don't understand slabbing an ancient.

Can I ask why Sap? Just curious since I was about to send ICG an ancient which is double-struck. I would like it protected by a "slab".

As far as I can tell, slabs serve three purposes, none of which are really all that helpful for ancient coins.

Protection - For the most part, ancients don't really need the help. An ancient coin has survived for a couple of thousand years without the help of a slab; I doubt a slab will be all that helpful in guaranteeing it sees another thousand or two. For the more fragile mediaeval coins I can see it being of some benefit, but ancients are typically much more robust. Further, ancient coins never come in "mint state" (even though some TPGs are in the habit of handing out MS or Unc grades) so they're never as vulnerable to serious accidental damage (like a fingerprint from careless handling) as a modern MS or Proof coin.

Authentication - This is where slabbing is "least unhelpful", assuming thew slabbing company actually hires qualified experts that can tell genuine from bogus with reasonable accuracy. However, there are plenty of people, such as David Sear's ACCS, that authenticate without the need for slabbing.

Sight-Unseen Trading - Slabbing has proved to be a boon for people who, for whatever reason, rely on Internet, mail-order, and other sight-unseen traders in coins - if you order a slabbed (modern) coin in the mail or off a website, you pretty much know what the coin is going to look like even if the pictures are poor, or absent. With an ancient coin, this will never be the case - complications such as off-centering, worn dies, a good or bad cleaning job, uneven strike, uneven wear; all this and more make summarizing an ancient with a single number difficult. If I ordered an "EF45" ancient without seeing it first, I have absolutely no idea what it would look like.

The Sear catalogues are good general reference works, as well as a price guide. They're pretty expensive, though, so if accurate prices aren't necessary for you, I'd suggest you get second-hand ones from a couple of decades ago.

The Sayles books are also good for an "overview" of the different ancient coin series. The "Non-Classical" volume (VI) is especially useful for a generalist collector, outlining some of the ancient coinages that aren't covered by the Sear books.

Thank you.