Wow JA, those are great coins!! (congrats) ... they all seem very alluring, eh? Are these a combination of sellers and keepers? My favourite is the sweet Illyrian drachm (I love that coin-type) ... but they're all cool ... => the Pentagram & Lion is also a very cool example ... and the Anchor and Apollo is always a total winner (when authentic => the test-cut does add a bit of history/authenticity) ... very nice Julia-M ... oh, and I totally agree with the rest of the gang => the Indo Skythian examples are amazing!! overall => great score, JA (I'm jealous that you have a "live" feeding ground to prowl) Sounds like a very successful and fun coin-adventure
Oh, and your example does "rock" ... I have chucked-in my humble example as a comparison ... My humble example is a bit off-center, and does not have the cool Dioscouri hats => a couple of definite bonus-points towards your cool new score!! (congrats again)
I'm always jealous of the stuff y'all pick up at coin shows. I'm planning to go to the one in Denver in May but from what I can tell there are usually only 3 or 4 dealers with ancients, maybe one less this time with the passing of Tom Cederlind. Any others planning on going? I'd love to meet up with other CoinTalk'ers.
Spalahores with his son Spalagadames, an Indo-Scythian bilingual ae (Greek and Karosthi), c. 95-65 BC, Kandahar mint. Hercules with club on reverse, the circled star is a control. That's all I've got for today, more tomorrow.
A potentially dangerous purchase for me, knowing so little of Indo-Scythians. Fortunately anoob was there to give me the nod of approval on the price, and after researching it myself, he was right. I did very well on this coin.
what a great coin score! that indo-sythian is square is "HOT" and so are the drachms, sweet centering on the illyrian. i have a matching square, but man...it's rough.
75 tables?! How does you only go for one day and hope to cover all of them, as you should? How do you even emerge unscathed with brain and eyes un-fried ? I will get to NYINC one day, oh yes I will. Oh, and great eclectic selection! I really like the Indo-Skythians. Looking forward to seeing the rest.
I got a lay of the land in the first hour - just walked around and looked into everyone's display. That rules out a number of sellers (for me) - the ones with primarily slabbed inventory (not casting aspersions, just not my preference), and the ones with really high-end stuff. I can safely walk by the dealers that have trays full of aureii. For my purposes, I want the dealers that have a lot of un-searched or mildly-searched stuff. Show me bags, not flips. Boxes of two-by-twos are also good. Let me sit and look through hundreds of coins. There were plenty of those dealers to keep me busy and I could easily have spent two days at it, but unfortunately I only had the one.
How many different dealers did you actually buy at least one coin from and how many did you search in earnest but not buy? At Baltimore, I rarely buy from more than 4 dealers from a list of about 8. There are a couple I know will have something I want and about 6 that sometimes do. Certainly there are many dealer at Baltimore that are over my head but there are also some that I rarely see anyone shopping at their table. I know at least a couple who are there mainly to buy for private customers. No one pays the table fee at a huge show in the hope of selling to someone like me.
The one hosted by the Ft Lauderdale coin club. They have it in Plantation every month. But only like two tables usually have some ancients and not a huge selection.
I bought from 5, searched in earnest maybe a total of 12 or so without buying. Sometimes those searches did not take long. A particular NY dealer, for example, had many boxes of 2x2's marked Greek, Provincial, Imperial, Other, etc. It looked very promising at first glance, but after looking through 4 boxes, I found nothing but low grade common coins marked at EF prices. This happened several times. I spent a lot of time at tables that had large wholesale lots and gave me sufficient wiggle room to haggle. I sifted through maybe 500 coins over the course of the day, which takes some time. I even found one dealer with bags of hundreds of Nabataeans, and managed to upgrade several of my type coins.
So a pile-on of related types? Azes II*, Indo-Scythians, BC 57 -12 AR, drachm, 2g, 16mm; 6h, uncertain mint west of Taxila Obv.: BAΣIΛEΩΣ BAΣIΛEΩΣ MEΓAΛOY AZOY; king on horseback right, raising right hand holding whip left, Kharosthi letter "ņa" before Rev.: Kharoshthi legend around: maharajasa rajadirajasa mahatasa ayasa;Pallas-Athena standing right with shield and spear, monograms on either side Indo-Scythians, King Maues 90-57 BCE (per CoinIndia; elsewhere, shown as 125-85 BCE) AE hemi-obol, 9.5 gm, 20 x 23 mm Obv: Elephant walking right, with raised trunk, within rectangular dotted border; Greek legend around, BAΣIΛEΩΣ BAΣIΛEΩN MEΓAΛOY MAYOY Rev: King seated cross-legged facing oncouch, within rectangular border, monogram above right, Kharoshthi legend around:rajatirajasa mahatasa moasa I'm on my tablet and don't have my notes handy for the above tetradrachm...Will update later... Because I know so little of the history of the Indo-Scythians their coins inspire a great deal of wonder in me and are among some of my favorites. Excellent and interesting additions!
... eh-heh-heh (*me too*) INDO-SKYTHIANS. Azes. AR Tetradrachm Circa 58-12 BC Diameter: 27 mm Weight: 9.32 grams Obverse: King on horseback right, holding spear Reverse: Zeus standing slightly left, holding thunderbolt and scepter; monogram to lower left, Bha to right Indo-Scythian Kings, Azes. AE-Unit c. 58 - 20 BC Diameter: 27 mm Weight: 13.35 grams Obverse: Rajadirajasa Legend. Lion standing rt., monogram above Reverse: Brahma bull rt., monogram above, shi before => oh, and I love your latest thread-addition, JA (Hercules with club on reverse, the circled star is a control ... very cool)
Is there some blog or website that posts ancient coin shows? If not, and there is a regular show in your area that hosts ancient dealers give a shout out.
Figured I would go ahead and post this one again hoping someone will chime in and help me fill in the gaps. I don't have Senior or Whitehead so I can't look the attribution up but here it goes: Azes I/II, Indo-Scythians, BC 57-12/AD 5-35 AR, tetradrachm, 8.76h, 24.5mm;1h Obv.: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΝ ΜΕΓΑΞΟΥ; Great king on horseback right, bow on back, right arm raised holding (?), whip in left, monogram of Karosthi letter left field Rev.:Karosthi legend; Poseidon standing right holding trident and extending right hand, monogram left, Karosthi letter right (?)