In Sicily? No thanks. Ain't that where Vito Corleone came from? They'd probably shoot first and ask questions later. (Yes, I know Vito Corleone is a fictional character. But he was no doubt based on some real-life Sicilian tuff guys.) (PS- it just occurred to me that Wallace Shawn's accent as Vizzini in The Princess Bride is about as UN-Sicilian as you can get, but that doesn't stop it from being my favorite film. I can nearly lip-sync it.)
Metal detect in Sicily, and get caught by the wrong guys, and you'll "buy the farm", all right! But at least you'll have the consolation of getting buried in the same ground as all those amazing coins...
Here's a Lesbos Mytilene El Hekte I recently acquired And a Phoenician Shekel with a Mythical creature Both cost a bit more than $500 but with Vito's help maybe you could make an offer the seller cannot refuse
Oh, right! Those Phoenician shekels with hippocamp (and other things) with double animal reverse might suit JohnDoe's needs . Such interesting coins With a little patience you can find them for much closer to your budget, like this one: PHOENICIA, Byblos. Uzibaal. 350-335 BCE. AR dishekel
+1 Thats DOPE! This thread is going to have me selling off a couple US coins to get serious with the ancients!
Ha! You're such an amateur! I had a quintuple post just recently! Now go practice some more until you can at least do a quadruple! I mean, c'mon!
This is the dilemma of exuberantly touting our hobby here on CoinTalk ancients. We love getting people excited about the hobby... but then we create more competition Oh well, there are plenty of coins and all kinds of ready-to-explore niches. C'mon over to the fun side! You'll find the prices amazingly low compared to many modern coins.
Glad to be in the place! And fret not... my collecting habits are spread out between US modern and old coins and paper, and just very recently ancients. And most of my ancient purchases are crustys requiring time and work (until I learn enough to actually be friendly competition).
That is cool. Am not ruling out anything, but I asked for animal designs, you delivered. Love to see some in various colors.
Wow, you ain't kidding. These are some absolutely stunning coins, made more special due to the motifs. Hard to even think about a modern after seeing these.
Earlier I posted that I didn't care too much for the dove, and would like the coin more if it had a different type of animal, such as Pegasus. But WOW that dove is beautiful. Love it. I'm guessing coins of this quality are extremely rare, and expensive though.
I saw one coin that was this coin's equal (without the spectacular toning though). It was at a Heritage auction. I was at the live event and actually raised my paddle and bid. What a stupid thing-- I would have had to sell my car had I won . Afterwards, David Michaels assured me that the winner (who was a phone bidder) was willing to go thousands higher than the hammer so I didn't stand a chance anyway (whew ).