How much is too much?

Doesn't count as a "rich uncle." Let's face it, Uncle Sam is anything but rich, and returning your own money to you in a refund hardly counts as a "gift."

How many in this forum wouldn't splurge a bit if they got a true monetary windfall from an unexpected source? Not very many would resist the urge...

 

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This is exactly the path I've taken recently, mostly because of my interest in Nabataean coins and the website I've set up. I want to acquire some rarer pieces as a part of that project, so my "habit" as you say, has slowed to a crawl. Whereas I would buy a few inexpensive coins every week, I haven't bought anything in the last month. That's not to say my habit has gone away completely - in fact, I may buy a cheap coins or two today.

 

I know we all have our personal coin interests and we buy accordingly, but I wonder how many buy a coin thinking "the guys on the forum will like this".

 

I definitely think that sometimes, Bing, but we have a very simpatico group here. Even if a posted coin isn't in our specific collecting interests, everyone seems genuinely appreciative of someone else's acquisition. Only rarely has someone said, "That's an awful coin, you should buy something better." And when that has happened, we've ridden the poster out of town on a rail, lol.

 

Yeah, even though I have a few bigger auctions for me coming up, I just bought a group of 5 Thai pod duangs. To me, a collector collects. Now I might move to other interests of cheaper coins if I am trying to save up some for a bigger purchase, I just believe the underlying urge of acquiring new things is a primal drive of collectors. Heck, I have even bought {horror} US coins when I have been bored.

 

After collecting ancients, I've acquired a different collecting aesthetic when it comes to US coins. I no longer care about minute differences in grade and investment potential. If anything, my experience with ancients has increased my enjoyment of US coins - I buy inexpensive type coins that I appreciate for their eye-appeal to me, and their historic facets.

 

True. I have been drawn more to Hard Time tokens, Civil War tokens, and colonial coins more than I ever was when I collected US coins. They just seem more interesting than another SL half. My main "other" outlet lately though has been medieval SE asian coinage.

 

There there could be one change I'd make to our little group it would be to have more people who appreciate the strange things I collect. My interest in Eastern Severus is more than ably matched (actually exceeded since his collection is better than mine) but when you are interested in strange ancients like medoraman and I are we feel lucky when we even overlap a little bit. There are so many areas of interest that it is not obvious that anyone will recognize, let alone appreciate, what we saw in the coin. Rather than thinking "the guys on the forum will like this", I often wonder if I should even post the coin since no one besides myself would want the thing. Of the last half dozen coins I bought, all were posted here but most bored most of you. I guess it would be nice if more of us shared interests but then we would be bidding against each other and that would not be good either.

 

Fair points Doug, especially the last. I know I am guilt of not commenting enough on others coins at times. I respect everything that others collect here, and I am sure they feel the same, but items like my avatar are not going to "geek out" most here, and neither will my miserable ugly Sogdian bronzes. You and I probably share more collecting interests than most people here and I do, and even then we are miles apart at times. But, like you said, that is a good thing too, at least we aren't poaching each others coins, (much).

 

Sometimes I wonder how many people won't like coins that I post since most of them are low grade and slot fillers. Although, I believe I have a few that are really nice.

I have been focusing on my Roman Imperial set for some time now but I do branch out sometimes and get coins from other regions. I just got my first Roman Republic coin. I also got a Justinian I Byzantine coin. I also have one from Carthage, a few from Judaea. A couple Islamic, Roman Provincials, some ancient Chinese coins, etc.

I need to get some Greek coins. That's still planned for the future.

 

I have a local show coming up in October and ANA is happening in May.

 

I agree about going higher.
If you really want this coin and have been actively searching I would say place a bid that all but ensures the coin will be yours.
Would you want to wait another 8 years, possibly more, for another chance at one?
I would definitely bid WAY over the suggested price if it were me in your situation.

 

Don't forget to let us know what it was after the auction

 

Well, here is it:



Not much to look at for some, but by gosh I wanted it. I have the gold version, but this is the silver miliresion of Constantine VII with Christopher. With my name being Christopher, you just know I need the two earliest coins bearing my name. I think this silver is 50 times rarer than the gold version, at least that seems to be the ratio I find them researching. It went for over 3 times bid, but after thinking how long I have been searching, I bid about 7 times estimate. Good thing too, the price tripled in the last 5 minutes of bidding.

 

Now that's a very nice one, congratulations on aquiring this !
Apart from being rarer i find the silver more visually appealing than gold. This coin for me has both plain robustness and delicacy with a western and an oriental touch. Great !

 

Congratulations!! That must be a fantastic feeling and I'm sure you'll enjoy the piece for many years!

 

Congratulations, medoraman! I'm glad you won it.

 

Atta-boy, medman => yesssssss!!

man, it is always nice hearing happy ending tales!! (cool coin-type, Christopher!!)

... sadly, (and obviously due to its relative rarity) I don't have an example to toss into the thread (man, wouldn't that have pissed you off a bit, if I did happen to have one of these ol' things in my collection?!!)


again, congrats (it's a feel good ending)

 

Btw Steve, I was hoping you would post here. The next lot AFTER this coin was a Stephen coin, also of Constantine VII, also the earliest depiction of your name I have seen on an ancient coin. Maybe you need to add it to YOUR wishlist. I would have bought it but it had a small chunk taken out of it, and the more I looked at it the more that missing chunk bothered me.

 

nice .... man, I can't believe that you didn't buy it for me?!!




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