The Indianapolis Ancient Hoard.

At least it feels like it. This is just a shot of the better stuff that came through the door a few days ago. Several hundred pieces total. I have been treating some of the coins in an acetone bath for the past couple of days because they were all coated heavily in PVC. I posted gigantic pics for better viewing.

Some of these pieces are going to be going to NGC for encapsulation in their ancients program.

I'll post more pics of some of the other stuff if I get time.

Enjoy!

 

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The gold is worth it to slab. (Ugh. I hate saying. LOL!) But the rest of the stuff probably won't improve much in plastic. None of the antoniniani are worth it, neither are the denarii. *Maybe* some of the Alexandrian stuff, but that is generally snatched up by more experienced ancient collectors, so the slab won't add any extra juice for you.

 

You might want to send the gold stuff (the others aside from maybe the Alexandrians stuff wouldn't be worth it) to Sear or another major ancients source if you want proof of authenticity, as the regular TPGs aren't particularly respected in the ancients community. Of course, if you're just planning to sell it to guys who don't know much about ancients, then they probably would be fine with NGC.

 

NGC isn't much worse than Sear for authenticating, to be honest. And any big dealer worth his salt is just as good, too. But one big factor - slabbed ancient gold SELLS. Like crazy.

 

Yeah, I was thinking the gold and possibly some of the nicer looking silvers.

Ancients are definitely not my forte. I definitely like them but as for having the confidence to price and attribute them correctly by myself I'm still learning. I had a friend help me buy this collection at a fair price and I'm going to use it to try to learn some of the ins and outs of ancients and their market.

 

Well, if you're going to attribute them yourself, you'll want to find RIC for the Imperial issues. The pure silver ones would be in Volume IV. For the more debased ones, you should be able to find spreadsheets to ID them. http://www.catbikes.ch/coinstuff/coins-ric.htm

For the Alexandrian ones, you have a couple of options. Some dealers prefer Die Münzen der römischen Münzstätte Alexandria by Ursula Kampmann and Thomas Ganschow. The German in it is rather easy to get through, and its well organized with good pictures, so you don't even really need to know German. But personally, I prefer Alexandrian Coins by Keith Emmett; its a little more difficult to learn how to use, but once you get the hang of it, you can ID the coins MUCH faster than with the German book.

Post what you come up with, I'm sure plenty of us will be glad to help!

 

Looks like I might have to invest in some books.

At the moment I'm concentrating on getting the PVC off the coins.... yuck...

Here's the rest of the lot... they are going to be a little easier to ID because of their current labeling.. but I have to get the green junk off first.

 

Post those too! It may well be that some of them warrant more than a basic ID of "Emperor, rough date"

 

wow, you have a serious hoard there ...I would think I died and went to heaven if I got an infussion of new coins into my collection like that. All can easily be ID'd

 

The coins shown and the labeling I see in the box do not look like a collection as much as a stock of a (non-ancients) dealer that was not deeply aware of what he had. The value of the Alexandrians would decrease in slabs if they even will slab them (might have fit problems. The gold, I agree, would sell to non-ancient collectors better in slabs. I find it a little odd that there are so many Alexandrians with the others unless that is just what you grabbed for the photos.

If they were mine, I'd slab the gold and photograph the others individually. Then I'd investigate a few VCoins dealers who might consign or buy them. They might even put you in touch with a local person who could help. There is an ancient dealer in Anderson if you do the search, you'll find him.

 

Wow, according to a thread several weeks ago these should all be worth under $10 each.

Sign me up for the gold at that price.

 

Nice!

 

Holy Macaroni!!

I have been at this all day and have identified about 20 pieces... haha!!

 

challenge

OK, show off your abilities by IDing the bronze at the extreme right of the original group photo. If you get that one the rest should be easy.

 

I'm done ID'ing for today, I have a monster of a coin induced migraine, but that'll be the first one I work on in the morning. We'll see if I can get it.

I'm having trouble with some of the roman pieces that show Greek deities on the reverse. Specifically some of the Antoninus Pius pieces.

 

Post them and we will make suggestions. Compared to most of the unidentified coins we see posted here, these are very interesting.

 

I worked on this pair for a bit today before giving up. Before this morning I have never tried to attribute an ancient ever. HA!

 

Both are Alexandria, Egypt, billon tetradrachms of Antoninus Pius. The reverse legends on these tend to be a symbol 'L' that means regnal year and a Greek numeral date. Some will have the date spelled out using words rather than a numeral. Pius is a common ruler in the series and these are not rare reverses but nice clear coins that would sell easily. The big bucks in Pius Alexandria are in the large bronze drachms which can be real knockouts if found in high grade.

Antoninus Pius / Isis Pharia standing right, holding sistrum and billowing sail; L KA (date year 21 if I am reading the partial A correctly)

Antoninus Pius / Tyche standing left, holding rudder and cornucopiae; L delta (date = year 4)

 

Emmett 1405(21) and 1436(4) respectively. 157-158 AD for the first, 140-141 AD for the second.

 

Is this the one you were referring to??

The best I could come up with was Phillip II with Nike on the reverse???