Every so often I get a coin and ask myself why I bought it. Today the mail included something much worse - a coin I didn't remember buying. It came from Upstate NY without invoice in a mailer with a name that mean't nothing to me. A little research showed that the name belonged to a VCoins dealer I knew by his business name. The coin looked a little familiar but I figured someone had posted it online and I had seen it in a long forgotten thread. More research showed that I did in fact order the coin back on December 19 and it was delivered January 23. I am ashamed that I had completely forgotten it. My research also turned up a note from the dealer back in August apologizing for having overlooked my paid order of July. That time I inquired after a month. I wonder how long it will be before I forget and order another coin. I can never say I'll never order again since he seems to get coins I want. The July coin was the Soter Megas I showed on a thread yesterday with square letters and the four prong Tamga obverse. Who cares about such things? That is the problem; I do. The coin is lower quality than I prefer for common Samanta Deva coins but I recall now liking the round face on the horseman, the legend squiggle to his right and the bold legend above the bull complete with terminal colon. It is hard to get all these things and the bull's head, too, so I compromised and paid $17 postpaid. I believe the coin is Tye 21. I have one other on my B&H page with the round faced horseman (most are long and thin). Did I need this? I'd feel more justified if I could read the legend to the right of the horse but just seeing it on flan is a little special to me. Most people will be happier with a standard Tye 14 with the bull's head on flan but I know I am an addict and thought I needed this variation long enough to order it but not long enough to remember it had not come. Embarrassed!
Nice score, I really like it (it's pretty cool) ... sadly, I don't have one of those bull-horseman examples, yet. Oh, but I must admit that it is a bit worrying that you don't recall ordering this sweet OP-coin ... ... but hey, it could certainly be a lot worse, my friend!! => an actual live rodeo-bull and a rent-a-cowboy could have arrived at your door!! ... phew, you dodged a bullet!!
We all question what why we bought something that may be a head scratcher to someone else. I cant say I would have bother with $17 for this coin, but if it fits a reason to you then it was worth it.
Doug, what can I say. There is a saying: Memory is the second thing to go, and I can't remember the first. Trust me. Been there. Done that.
I havent dont that yet, but I've found coins in drawers I never new I had gotten (that I probably bought at the local shop as lot). I've also found ancient coins in my washing machine that weren't even mine lol. One I had given to my nephew and he forgot about it, and the other was going to be a gift for me from my mom.
Since we are confessing.....I once put an envelope with a coin up on the shelve in my workshop just so my wife would not see me walk in the door with it. Then, I forgot about it and even wrote the seller complaining I hadn't received my coin. He refunded my money. About a month or so later, I saw the envelope, slapped my forehead, wrote the seller saying the envelope had just mysteriously arrived in the mail, and promptly paid the seller. Talk about memory lapse!
Unfortunately I don't have enough coins yet to say that I've misplaced one without knowing or hadn't received one I forgot about ordering. Someday though. Lol!
I received a cruddy unidentified AE4 as a freebie once. One side was practically flat and the other side had three raised lines parallel to each other. I really hope it wasn't anything super rare/special because I lost it and have looked all over for it. I fear it might have gotten swept up with the broom and thrown out
I also bought a coin from the same lot and dealer. It is in a shabby state. I certainly already own far better bull and horseman specimen, but i had to get this one. Let's see if anyone besides Doug understands why ?
I don't have that one either but have been looking for one. What I can say is that this one's strong feature is the one that matters. He had dozens of BH coins at prices that varied for reasons I did not always understand. Ar there enough of us that seek these by Tye number or beyond that variety influences price or is it all grade? This seller seems to think so since your coin was $8 more than mine. Did you buy the other one that is shown next to this in his sold items?
Many years ago, when I was a dealer, I lost a beautiful denarius in a flip with a label indicating a price of $240. Months later, I stepped into my car after it had gone through a car wash and there was the coin on the passenger seat! An example of honesty you would not expect in an employee probably being paid minimum wage!
The pricing of these also to me is a mystery. At that time the dollar was still nicely low for us europeans, that has changed lately. I indeed also bought the other one, which was cheap and looks even worse. But it is an unpublished Tye 3 variant, of which i now have assembled a small series.
So I suspected mostly from the fact that the coin was so low grade that the number of people who might recognize it as special would be very limited. This may be one of those cases where the best known example is horrid so we have to decide whether we welcome its existence as-is or whether we pretend it does not exist (as seems to be the prevailing attitude in some circles).
