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CoinWeek sits down with NGC Ancients' Director David Vagi to discuss collecting ancient coins, ancient coin grading, and how new collectors should approach this remarkable area of numismatics.
Vagi then takes us behind the scenes as he grades an order of silver tetradrachms at NGC's headquarters in Sarasota, Florida.
This exclusive CoinWeek video was made possible with the generous help of NGC.
CoinWeek IQ Video: #026
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so David how does grading ancient coins
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differ from grading classic or modern
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coins well probably the most basic way
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is that we don't utilize the Sheldon
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grading system the numerical grading
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system uh instead we use the adjectival
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grades they're traditional fine very
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fine extremely fine mint State um the
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whole range uh but we also at NGC we
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have a custom system where we also
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evaluate strike and surface separately
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so we assign numerical values to those
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to describe essentially how good the
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strike and surface are on the coin and
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we also uh mention if it's fine style
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and this is all very important to
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ancient coins because each ancient coin
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was hand struck and they were struck
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from Dives that were engraved by hand so
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the style on each particular coin on the
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die in particular will vary based upon
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the skill of the artist so some may have
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the exact same grade but one will be of
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extraordinary style and of course
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command a much higher premium with
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collectors and another will be of
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pedestrian style and we try to
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distinguish between those um in terms of
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strike and surface since these were all
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hand struck they weren't struck in
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by machines um you have an incredible
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variance in the quality of the strike uh
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including centering evenness of strike
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strength of strike and this is something
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we
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quantify and with surface of course you
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have an incredible range with ancient
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coins because not only do you have
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different cleaning techniques uh but
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also these coins have been buried in the
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ground for thousand you know more than a
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thousand years in most every case so a
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great many things can happen to an
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ancient coin so we felt it was important
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to really get into detail with these and
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not actually boil everything down to a
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number I think it's something that
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someone who collects ancient coins would
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realize this but somebody who isn't
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familiar would take for granted that the
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quote unquote modern period of coin
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production is not is is is much more
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recent the the ancient coin field spans
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well over a thousand years or so um so
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so how how does that wide range of time
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uh the development of different minting
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and art styles and Technologies plus the
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vast variety of coins make it difficult
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for uh someone to become an expert in
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the entire genre of ancient coin
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grad it's a great question the um
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probably the easiest thing to say is
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that no one is truly an expert in the
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whole range um that's probably the first
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thing read of the gate um you have
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everything being struck from about 650
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BC to with the Byzantine is late is the
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uh you know the fall of Constantinople
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to the ottoman Turks and then you have
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everything being struck in the west as
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far as as far as Wales all the way to
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the border of India and then the Border
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you know up in Germany down to North
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Africa so it's a huge swath of land over
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a period That's nearly 2,000 years so no
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one can be expert in everything however
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we have uh Consultants that we use in
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areas that we're less familiar with but
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the way to become familiar with them is
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lit literally to immerse yourself in it
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fulltime for many many decades and there
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are no shortcuts to it unfortunately so
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somebody who loves ancient coins what
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kind of Thrill is it for you to see just
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the diversity of quality and and coin
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design that you see on a daily basis at
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NGC well it's funny I when I talked to
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about this with other people in the
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field I describe coming into work at NGC
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every day it's like it's Christmas every
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day because literally I get these boxes
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and I have no idea what's in them and
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with ancient coins there are so many
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undiscovered types or types that are
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extremely rare in fact with ancients
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Rarity is common in other words rare
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coins are everywhere um and it is
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absolutely normal on a daily basis here
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to see coin that I've never seen before
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after looking at these coins for more
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than 30 years so it's an exciting thing
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and uh it it really makes being involved
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in the field uh so much interest so
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interesting and so satisfying how has
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certification of ancient coins affected
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that segment of the industry
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uh the thirdparty grading of ancient
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coins has really expanded the number of
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people uh who can participate in our
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field in fact I often wonder going back
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to when I
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started uh more than 30 years ago when I
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purchased my first ancient coins I kind
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of wonder what was wrong with me that I
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did this basically you're going up to
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someone who you don't know giving them
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your money because they tell you this
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thing is uh 2,000 years old and the fact
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is that's what drives everyone into the
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field but it's a huge leap of faith uh
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and what NGC provides obviously is a
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independent thirdparty analysis that
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just provides collectors uh with a
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greater sense of security that there has
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been a third party involved in analyzing
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all aspects of the coin not just its
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authenticity but also um its
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identification whether or not it has
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been altered uh all of these things are
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really important and they're quite
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intimidating to new collectors and I
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think NGC does a great deal to address
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that core
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consideration as as uh recently as a
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century ago Americans and Europeans were
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steeped in the
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classics um Latin Greek uh Hebrew it
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wouldn't be uncommon to see an educated
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person be able to speak one or more of
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those
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languages what do you say to a
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contemporary coin collector who doesn't
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necessarily have this type of background
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to convince them that getting into
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ancient coins is something that they can
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do and they can learn on a on their own
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pace and to be successful
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at well it's very interesting yes
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Classical Languages are no longer taught
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in uh standard schooling you really need
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to go uh by choice to Advanced learning
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facilities these to um to get any kind
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of training in uh these languages um but
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language is just one portion of what's
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involved with the study of ancient coins
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so people who want to be involved
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shouldn't be intimidated by not being an
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expert in history or Classical Languages
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because the fact is with coins you tend
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to learn backwards from the coins so you
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have a coin as an object and then you
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can learn backward from that about
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everything about the history of the coin
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about the art about the politics of the
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time about even where the metal was
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mined what it was used for all these
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things I like to think of coins as a
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starting point for learning about
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everything that relates to it um so
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they're they're incredible Sparks for
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research and understanding
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