Where do YOU draw the line? Syracuse Deka Repair

That is interesting. I'm actually quite ok with that, since it is reversible. I thought they soldered it on somehow.

 

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Speaking only for myself, I find it easy to be vertuous (with right hand on my heart) about a coin I couldn't afford anytime, even if the price were 1/10 of what it is now.

I don't like tooled coins, don't buy them, don't keep them when I happen to discover I have one in my trays.

But one has to live with their own contradictions, and it's still a very nice and desirable coin.

Would I like to have it in my collection ?
Definitely yes (especially since I know the repair can be removed)

How much would I be ready to pay for it ?
I sincerely can't tell as it's so much out of my price range that I can't imagine telling my wife we need to sell the house for I'm buying a coin (but, darling, Evenaitos himself made it a looooong time ago !!!) !

Well, still nice
Q

 

Two comments. First, I don't think the repair was particularly well done, as I noticed it before reading the description. I wonder if it's being "disclosed" only because it's so obvious. Would it be disclosed if it was truly expertly done and indistinguishable from the ancient surface? I doubt it. This type of restoration is ultimately meant to hide a flaw and deceive.

Second, I would not knowingly buy a coin with this type of repair. I'm okay with some cleaning, even a bit of old smoothing on an old collection bronze (because that's what they did to bronzes back then), but not this.

EDIT: I had not noticed the reversible resin post above when I made these comments. I suppose that's a little better, but it puts the buyer in the unenviable position of having to clean their $85,000 coin with solvents to put it back to unrestored condition.

 

My thought exactly. This makes all the difference. Now I would be very willing to purchase, but am not in a market for this coin. However, same issue onna coin I am interested in, and this fact, (reversibility), completely changes everything.

I commend artancient, if that is who had this done, for making it reversible.

 

I still wouldn't pay more and if I did purchase the coin, would reverse it.

 

it is better that it's a waxy substance and not a metal of some kind as i thought. i'd put this in the same category as "fake patina" then, added but can be removed.

i don't buy coins with fake patina, so i'd have to pass on a coin with resin as well, unless it was discounted.

 

I've got no problem with a resin-based repair.

 

"Fake patina" is very much different IMO. Sure, you can remove it, but you can't restore an original patina without hundreds of years of burial.

 

I would feel a lot better about this if I felt the coin had been restored to make it look more like it did before it was damaged but I see the motive was to add $1k worth of restoration by a jeweler and resell the coin for $10k more. I know I own coins that have 'benefited' from creative cleaning/smoothing/tooling and may even know which some of them are. As soon as we make it profitable and socially acceptable to do this sort of thing, we will run out of used and damaged coins. All will have been made into proofs.

Once, years ago, I was told my sestertius of Julia Domna with Juno revers was getting harder to find. It seems that particular reverse has a way of turning into coins of Manlia Scantilla who used that reverse. About the same time, I was advised not to fix a minor dent in a car fender since the appearance of repair would make some used car buyers assume it had been fixed after a major accident and might have a bent frame. Were either of them right?

 

I have known a collector who always bought extensively tooled ancient greek coins for his collection (because they were cheaper) and when told about it said that he knew about it and didn't care. And I know of a collector who will only buy coins if they are completely untouched, exactly as they are when they came out of the ground. Two extremes, illustrating the diversity amongst collectors of ancients. This is what makes it so much fun to belong to this group of unusual people.

 

Sometimes a coin is so exceedingly rare that you have no option but to accept one that is holed/plugged/smoothed/tooled - if you really want it. I still want an Antinous medallion, and when they are offered they usually have modifications.

What about plugged holes? Does anyone view that in the same light as tooling?

 

I have a JC portrait coin which is holed and plugged. I suppose I could afford another, but this one comes with a provenance from well respected collector. In my collection it's a keeper.

JULIUS CAESAR
AR Denarius
OBVERSE: CAESAR IMP, laureate head right, lituus & simpulum behind.
REVERSE: M METTIVS, Venus standing left with Victory & scepter, shield resting on globe; control letter G to left
Rome January-February 44 BC
3.81g, 18mm
RSC 34
ex. Andrew McCabe

 

Here was one of my "learning experience" purchases ...

man, I "love/loved" this cool coin when I first saw it (its' a total winner, I figured!!)

=> but like a hungry eagle spotting a wounded field-mouse, Mentor swooped-in and taught me about smoothing & tooling (gawd, I hated Mentor that day)

Bosporian Kings, Sauromates I
- Implements of Battle –
Æ 48 Units
Date: circa 98-104 AD
Size: 27.94 mm
Weight: 9.49 grams
Obverse: TIBEPIOC IOYΛIOC BACIΛEYC CAYPOMATHC, Sauromates seated right on curule chair, holding sceptre tipped with the head of Trajan
Reverse: TEIMAI BACIΛEωC CAYPOMATOY, Round shield with spear, surrounded by battle axe, horse head, helmet, and sword in scabbard, mark of denomination (MH) below
Attribution: MacDonald 417
Description: A nice example with light tooling and smoothing typical for this issue.



... yah, I still love this coin

 

The question here is not so much whether we will own a modified coin but whether we will pay extra for them to encourage the owners of a $100 coin to spent $20 on repairs because the fixed coin will sell for $200. If fixed coins sold for $120 or less, this sort of thing would stop. If you want to pay someone to fix your coins for your enjoyment, that is one thing, but if you see no reason to mention it when selling or if you expect me to pay for what you spent on the repair, there we have a problem.

I have a coin that was sold in a sale for which I have the catalog but was cleaned further (and not too skillfully) buy the guy who bought it from that sale. I paid a lot less for it than he did. Pay your money and do as you must. Filling holes seems minor compared to mounting in jewelry or melting them down for bullion. There are still places in the world where the safest thing to do with a hoard of coins is to melt them.