Hi all, I found this Hadrian sesterces up for sale for 850. I know it’s high but wondering what you guys would pay for it. thanks, Larry
Hmm...I'm no expert but the hairlines and beard details seem unnaturally uniform and crisp, making me suspect that there's been some tooling going on. Perhaps others can weigh in on this. It's definitely an eye-catcher!
Without looking up the coins rarity, I would say that seems a high price. Hadrian coinage is plentiful; thus, I have many variations and none of which set me back that kind of money. I suspect as @The Meat man there may be some tooling
That coin has definitely been tooled. That means re-engraving has been done to reproduce details which were lost due to circulation. This is heavily frowned upon, especially when it's not been disclosed by the seller. In case you aren't aware... high grade, problem-free sestertii can cost more than aurei. EDIT: added an image of a real sestertius for comparison.
Oh wow thank you both. It’s hard to see the tooling but I trust the experts. Yes I notice it’s incredibly hard to find high grade sesterces. What are some of the better auction houses to buy them from?
Classical Numismatic Group (CNG) is a good one located in the US. Savoca Coins, Roma Numismatics, and Numismatik Naumann are some overseas houses I've done business with.
Using the free search for 'sestertius' on acsearch.info will list over 100 000 sestertii. Filter on 'most recent' and you'll get a good idea of the most active auction houses for your interest. Sixbid and coinarchives have similar search functions, but their no cost option is limited to sales in the last six months, which might be suitable for your purposes. D
While it's of course not always the case, my general rule of thumb is, "Any coin being sold at a fixed price is overpriced". I only buy through auctions, it at least makes me feel that the price was fairly determined by market demand. I purchased this raw Hadrian Sestertius through such an auction back in 2018: I sent it to NGC and it came back in a "Tooled" body bag. I prefer my coins in slabs, so this was another lesson learned! If you care about things such as tooling and do not have the expertise to make these determinations yourself (like me), then buying raw bronzes is a risky business.
Buying at auction is no guarantee of a fair market price, though. In fact in some ways it's easier to overspend, what with the emotional factor, bidding competition, fees, etc. There are a lot of dealers who price very fairly, and more often than not I've been able to get a discount on those who are a little higher.
I agree that it is certainly easier to be influenced by emotion with auctions. But I eliminate this issue by: 1. Determining my top price 2. Scaling my bid based on buyer's fees 3. Placing proxy bids 4. Checking after the auction ends to see the results . This approach is of course problematic if the auction house resorts to shill bidding type activities. But, I've grossly overbid enough times to conclude that this is not a problem with Heritage (where I buy the majority of my coins). I did state that my general rule "wasn't always the case", and I'm perfectly willing to purchase a fixed price coin if the deal seems right. But: 1. Sifting through haystacks (over priced coins) to find a few needles (fairly priced coins) is not an efficient use of time. 2. The idea of middle-men skimming profits between sales of items that are supposed to be a fun hobby leaves a bad taste in my mouth. 3. While some people (like my brother) enjoy haggling, I absolutely can't stand to do it. So if a deal could be had by negotiating, then I'm not gonna get it anyway (haggle room is typically built into the price).
These are good points, especially the note about proxy bidding. I've come to prefer that method - not least because I don't immediately see whether I'm winning or not. Not knowing if I'm the highest bidder removes the pressure to keep upping my bid past my limit.
I strongly prefer my coins in a raw state. While I wouldn't consider myself a super expert, I have been collecting for 30 years. I'm relatively decent about avoiding many of the tooled coins. Although I recently purposely violated my rule to pick up a cheapie coin, I usually run far away when a coin has those rosy patches in the fields. At the very least, it usually indicates oversmoothing. Assuming the strike was good, another indication is that if one aspect of the coin is weak (like the legends) and the bust is suspiciously strong. The only toolie which I've not had many bad feelings about is my Aurelian double sestertius. It was sold described as tooled (and I picked it up in a remainder lot). It's a rare and expensive denomination, so I'm probably not going to find an affordable regular example.
I’ve heard that almost all ancient bronze coins have been tooled. Some more obvious I guess. They just accumulate gunk over two thousand years.
That's most definitely a gross exaggeration. Taken as a whole, I think it would be much more accurate to say that the overwhelming majority of bronze coins are not tooled. As some have pointed out elsewhere, certain bronze types tend to get tooled more than others. Now, cleaned, yes, 99.99% of ancient coins have been cleaned at some point. But that is perfectly normal and necessary. Cleaning the accumulated gunk off a coin is not tooling.
I have found that if you are patient - really really patient - and avoid some of the more well known dealers you can find some real bargains in online auctions - but it requires time which I usually do not have. And sometimes you can find great deals with the biggies - I just won and received a Geta sestertius RIC 185, extremely rare platform scene - only two examples on ACSEARCH from CNG for $300 including buyers fee, shipping and taxes. I really REALLY like CNG - it is a great company - I paid with a phone call since my card had changed, they got me the coin very fast, e-mail to confirm receipt - just a class act, all around. But they get very good prices - except I did pretty good this time. It is wonderful for me since I have the same type of sestertius for Caracalla - I am going to do a post that includes both coins as part of a long planned article about sestertii of the year both Geta and Caracalla were emperors and what happened right after. This article has been percolating in my head for so long that I could probably dash it off in couple of hours. But how to find the time!!? Blake
