Thoughts about trading

I had a successful trade recently with a member of Forvm. He lives in Thessaly and was interested in a Provincial from there that I had acquired a few years back. I told him my interests and he offered 5 different coin options from his collection with one being three Greek coins from the Cyclades and one from Apulia that I decided to take. I did not pay a lot for my coin since it was misidentified and after a few emails to work out shipping details we traded. Even if I was on the short side of the deal I'm glad he got a coin that fit his collection.

 

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I have no problem with trades but only have one recent example. I traded two for two with another CT member. I got one coin in my prime specialty that I really, really wanted and one that fit my collection but was less special. He got a coin I dearly loved but was out of my specialty and a coin in one of my specialties that I did not like because it was ex CNG's collection of artificially toned coins of this sort. The part that hurts a little is he later bought a coin very similar (minor legend difference). I am still happy with the trade and would be happy to retrieve the coins he got if I get something he wants enough to do another trade.

I got:

and


He got:

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99% of you think I lost on the deal. That's OK. It is like Valentinian said:

 

I have never traded a coin. The concept suffers from what economists call the "double coincidence of wants".

There are two people A and B. A has to have a coin that B wants and B has to have a coin that A wants. Plus, A must value possession of B's coin higher than possession of his own coin and vice versa.

Only if these conditions are met can there be a mutually beneficial trade. To solve the problem, some 2600 years ago people agreed to conduct exchanges with the help of goods that everybody wants. These goods are called money.

 

True but it is possible that a trade can involve more than one item or some cash to achieve a balance. The idea of the trade is to pry loose from two tight fisted collectors a coin that they have no intention of selling but that they might let go if they received something they wanted even more in trade. This is not something that you can buy every day with cash from sources known to everyone but things that are available only a few times over a long period. Rather few modern coin collectors could understand this because most of their coins are available by the roll if they have the money. I have a few coins that I have no desire to sell that I would trade for one particular coin currently in the British Museum. It would appeal to very few people but would fit my collection better than my 'tradeables'.

You will say everything has its price and you may be right. I wonder what my price is.

 

All true, but I was careful not to talk about (money) prices, but subjective value. A coin that does not appeal to many people will have a relataively low money price, but it may still have a high subjective value to one person. If you manage to buy such a coin for the low low money price, you gain, what economists call a "consumer rent", i.e. subjective value above an beyond the money price. These are the best purchases of all.

Not everything has a money price, but I guess all coins in private hands do. There are coins I would never think of selling, but I'm sure some insane amount of money would change my mind.

I'm wondering what the coin is from the BM and what makes it so special.

 

Yes, and it's all a part of game theory that economists use to determine who gets the better deal. Plus, what is considered money has come in many different forms over the years, from cattle to commodities to pieces of metal.

 

I only trade Electrons for Ancient Coins...

 

As an exercise lets imagine someone were to offer you an amount of money for your entire collection AND also require you to promise never to buy, handle or look at an ancient coin (or even a photo of one) for the rest of your life. Now lets say your collection cost you a total of $1 million dollars. Obviously there are circumstances that would make getting the money you spent back in large part most desirable but for this exercise lets imagine that you are comfortable, debt free, healthy and do not know exactly what you would do with the money. Would you be tempted by $2 million? 5? 10? There are those among us for whom life would not improve with another $10 million and those who would sell body parts for a small fraction of that sum. I suppose everything has its price but that price is set by circumstance rather than by RedBook value. In 1974 I made a mistake and sold a bunch of coins that I liked then and have not replaced now. I have never seen a single one for sale since (I would recognize about a dozen and have images of a few others). I question myself as to what I would pay for certain of 'my' coins rather than just one like or a bit better than what I had. Modern collectors would not understand that difference. A few who collect ancients might. Trades are like that. I do not expect the person to whom I sent the Didius to trade it back to me and I could most certainly find a nicer one on the market simply by telling certain dealers that I was willing to pay 2-3x what it might be worth. That made that trade a good deal for me.

The coin was shown in my last post here. It belonged to my late friend Roger Bickford-Smith who left his coins to the BM. His lesser coins by their definition were sold in CNG sale #47 and I bought several for one reason or another. Others were accessioned. I was hoping that no one at the British Museum would think this one worth adding to their collection. They did. At least I can feel good that someone there understands my interests.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1997-1203-107

 

Yes, but that quadruple-coincidence makes it sound a bit more unlikely than it probably is, especially since only one side of the trade is likely fixed ...

What happens in practice is that A spots a coin (the "fixed" one) in B's collection that they want, and asks B if they'd be willing to sell/trade it. B may not be willing to sell (valuing the coin, due to rarity or whatever, above any reasonable offer), but might be open to the right trade ... after all why close the door to unknown possibilities.

So now it "just" comes down to does A have something to offer that tempts B enough to do the trade. There is likely considerable flexibility on the part of A since they want to make the trade happen. The win-win value perception can come from a bunch of different factors, including different interests, prices paid, etc.

 

We buy but never sell. Our heirs will have the choice to continue or end our passion! Either way, we won't know, the end. Know what I mean...

 

Unless we decide to be buried with our coins, thereby taking them with us.

 

But that is still exactly the situation that I described before. It doesn't matter if A wants B's coin more than the other way round. All that matters is that A values possession of B's coin more than possession of his own coin and vice versa. If the condition is met the two can conduct a mutually beneficial exchange. Most of the time the condition is not met, which is why we use money instead.

This condition also does not exclude error. If A changes his mind after the trade - maybe because a much better deal came up in an auction - his consumer surplus (not consumer rent - I mixed English and German earlier) drops, perhaps into negative.

PS happened to me recently. I bought a Qarter-Siliqua of Athalaric without the REX title in an auction. The coin was in poor condition, but since it is extremely rare I thought I'll never get a second chance. Yet, within two months a second, better one came up (which I also bought). My appreciation of the first one is pretty low.

 

That is kind of disappointing, if someone leaves his coins to a museum and the museum sells it to the market. I'm not criticising the BM. Their action is understandable. But still this is probably not the outcome intended by the generous donor.

 

Yes, but that's only an option some of the time. It seems to be quite common for collectors to be open to trades, but not to selling. It makes sense since upgrading via a trade enhances your collection but selling does not.

 

I guess the question is whether you NEED to own the same coins all the time. If you do, don't trade, but realize your collection will ultimately be smaller. If you don't, then you can enjoy a larger number/variety of coins over the years.

Personally, I've said many times that I don't need to own them all at the same time.

 

I love that type. I wish I had that!

 

I see that as the proper action. The BM collection is very good/huge. The coins that were sold were mostly duplicates that would have added no real benefit to their holdings but would mean something to others like me. None of those coins will ever go on display. If they did, no one would look at them. Anyone who specializes in Eastern Septimius is bound to have a dozen of certain common types and one of many of the rare ones. While I would not consider giving my coins to a museum, the recent online publication of their coins opens the access to this great collection to many more people and makes me think of museums as less evil than I did previously. A staff member of the British Museum introduced me to Roger and for that I am thankful.

 

I haven’t traded a coin, yet, and never thought about it as deeply as other people. My thought is if the right chance pops up, and it’s the right coin at the right time, why not go for it?

but, I have no idea how I’ll react in the moment.