I can recognize the Greek god Zeus on the obverse of this ancient coin. But the reverse seems very difficult for me to interpret in matter of lettering and symbolic images. Could you please help identifying this? Thanks.. Charles
The reverse figure is Nike facing left so I wen to acsearch and typed in zeus nike left ae which produced many wrong coins and this one: http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=7672
Thanks Doug. I went to acsearch and find the coin at auction. But I could not obtain the result of the auction. They want me to log in . Can you get this please , or at least estimate the approximate value. In fact, I encounter many ancient Greek Coins from time to time. Any information on values could assist me. Thank you.. Charles
Charles, signing up with acsearch is free. Just create an account. It's a very handy site and I'm sure you'll want to use it again. Edited: The coin Doug cited, however, was sold by Forvm Ancient Coins. Forvm removes the sales price from their website after a coin is sold in their store. In this case, no one will be able to see the price.
Tiff. Hi.. Can you please just guess an approximate value of the coin above. No matter how precise or accurate it is. Thanks.. Charles
No, but I will give you detailed directions for to how to determine this yourself. The steps can be applied to determining value for future coins too. I recommend that you bookmark this thread and the links provided so that you can find them easily the next time. 1. Identify the coin (in other threads members here have given you specific instructions and websites to help you with this, and the current coin in question was identified for you by Doug) 2. Check various archives for similar coins and their sales price. You will have to make an objective determination of quality/grade. Here are some suggestions for sites to check for prior sales: ACSearch. Type a few key words in the box; select "ancient" from the drop-down menu (although you don't really have to do that). You can do a more advanced search if you wish. If you get no results, check your keywords; change them; add to them; check your spelling; etc. In the case of this particular coin I'd use the search phrase "Seleukid Kingdom, Demetrios II". CNG's sales archives. Type your keywords into the box labeled "search". Be sure the checkboxes next to the words Coin Shop, Printed Auctions, and Electronic Auctions are checked. On the results page you will see different headings for those categories, so don't forget to click on those once on the results page. Vcoins. You can't easily search for sold coins but you can see what retail sellers are asking for similar coins. Type your search words in the box provided; check the box for "Ancient Coins", selected "All Dates" from the second box if it is not already set to that. Click the Search button. There will likely be numerous coins which are not exactly the same as yours so you will need to look carefully at each. Remember to objectively assess the condition of your coin when comparing to ones you find. Also remember that Vcoins is a retail site; you may be able to buy such coins cheaper at auction or on eBay. eBay. I've linked to the "Advanced Search" page. In the first box, enter your search words. A few lines down, you are asked where to search. Select "Coins and Paper Money" from the drop-down menu. The next section says "Search Including". This is important: check the box for "Completed Listings" or "Sold Listings. The difference is that you will see coins which were offered for sale but which failed to sell if you check "Completed Listings". This can be helpful; you will get an idea of prices which were too high. Click the blue Search button. These are the steps we take when wondering what our coins are worth. I'm sure you can learn to do it too.
While I agree with TIF regarding pricing a coin when you are seeking to buy a specific type small Greek bronzes have to have something going for them to be worth anything in the grade shown in the photo. Being identifiable is worth something but I would not pay even $5-10 for a low grade, generic Greek bronze. The poor centering and poor surfaces make a coin type of no particular interest worth what I would call the minimum nuisance value of any particular dealer. This varies from dealer to dealer (some sell nothing under $100). If you are looking for this specific issue, you will have to pay more, but for most of us, this will be considered a junk box bronze. I do not have the type but will show three pulled from boxes for $8, $15 and $20 (in order shown) to give the idea. I expect readable legends, am hard on overcleaned coins with poor surfaces and am really hard on those losing major parts (the chin) to centering. Sometimes we say 'Condition is everything' but I believe the price would depend more on who is selling the coin than on the coin itself. Who disagrees? Am I being too hard on the coin? How much would others pay? Antiochus IV AE13 Alexander Balas AE18 Antiochus IX AE 19
Thank you very much for this effort. Instead of giving me a fish, you try to teach me how to fish.. That's a proverb in my tiny country. I 'll try with V Coins. Respectfully Charles
Charles, Doug makes a very good point in his post. Putting much effort into this one is more of an academic exercise since you would have difficulty finding anyone who would pay more than ~$5-10. The reality is that for this particular coin, it has been harshly cleaned and has poor details. Any comparisons you find on the first three sites will not be useful because those coins will almost certainly be in far better condition than yours.
