I've been using the internet as my go to for information on coins, and I've found numista to be the most accurate and complete. anyways. On to the silly questions. My go to coin guy, the owner of a modest antique/thrift store here, swears up and down and to heaven above that a few of his coins are uncirculated, mint state, brilliant, Etc. Etc. I don't believe him, mostly because he tried to sell me a token from alladins palace (an old shut down arcade, I happened to have one already) and all the time telling me it's from Saudi Arabia, and that it's very very rare. He's done this a few times with different coins and tokens. from what I've read and what I've learned, I'm lead to believe if it's not in a slab, its not mint state. Is this always true? Or are there exceptions?
Next question: is it worth it to purchase ancient coins, or should I go with replicas? Because it seems even the lumps of metal go for an arm an a leg. wouldn't it be incredibly easy to fake an ancient eroded coin? Especially basal state?
I would stop going to your go to guy, he sounds like a scoundrel.
....and no, a coin does not have to be slabbed to be uncirculated, a coin's grade is a state of being, and a matter of opinion to some degree, not a state of slab.
Welcome to Numista, I hope find the site as useful as I have.
Any seller who will lie to you for a couple of dollars is to be avoided. There are better ones, find them instead of wasting your money on the current crook.
Slabbed coins are meant to give some reassurance to people who can't grade coins. Crooks have worked this out and this has lead to what we term "basement slabbers" who will grade every coin in their inventory as MS70 and drop it in a cheap plastic case and sell you a .25c coin for $50. Some are supposed to be reputable, PCGS, NGC etc. but it's a flawed business model and needs to die out like Phrenology or the Flat Earth Society. Learn to grade you own coins instead of paying some geriatric $30 to tell you how nice they are. With the money you save, buy books.
Ancient coins are remarkably cheap and have enough meat on their bones to keep you enthralled for a lifetime. Coins from the late Roman period often turn up in HUGE hoards which means cheap coins for us. You can pick up a trouble free coin in decent grade for less than $5 all day long especially if you buy them in lots.
Non illegitimis carborundum est. Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!
There are more raw (unslabbed) mint state coins than there are slabbed ones. But for expensive coins, buying slabbed is usually a must to avoid "sliders" (AU coins which are close to mint state) and cleaned coins.
As for ancients, I would never buy replicas, they're usually poor quality and have no value. Instead, only purchase from reputable dealers, and use online info to aid your purchases. Here's a good place to start: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/
Slabbed coins tends to be mostly a USA thing, Over here in New Zealand you don't usually see slabbed coins very often at all. Just because it's not in a slab doesn't mean it's not uncirculated. Also just because it's in a slab it doesn't mean it's uncirculated.
The best thing you can possibly do is to spend some time on photo grading sites so you can learn to tell the difference yourself, then you won't have to take a crooked dealers word for it. Invest in a loupe and a scales and you're ready to go.
If you collect USA coins then I would start with something like the PCGS site
I don't own a single slabbed coin and I have many mint state coins in my collection, here in Finland collectors and dealers hate slabs and they are considered a sign of a collector being insecure about their own knowlege about the coins they own or want to purchase.
Also I don't see why anyone would prefer replicas over the real deal, it's just my opinion but I would never add a replica to my collection. (this is just my opinion)
I agree, there's plenty of low cost ancients that you can buy. If you decide to specialise in them later in your collecting then it starts getting more pricey as you get the rarer ones, but if you just want some to add some depth to your collection, then Phil is right, there are plenty to keep you going for a long time.
Also, I remember when I just started collecting coins I did not know the difference between uncirculated condition and uncirculated issues.
Uncirculated issues are coins that are specifically issued for collectors and you can't find them in circulation. They often come in a box or a special package but not always.
Uncirculated condition means that a coin (even those coins that are minted for circulating) is in an excellent condition.
