Another Shocker at Heritage Last Night

Several days ago I began tracking the coin pictured below with the hope of snagging it for $500.00 or less. There are many different varieties of this coin type that are more attractive than this one, so I kept my fingers crossed . I didn't realize this coin sold at Heritage 4 years ago for $1,080.00 until this morning . It sold again last night for $2,880.00 ! There seems to be no limit what collectors will pay for slabbed high-grade Tets in the current market .

 

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It is a shame that coins cannot be slabbed (YET?) showing their entire edge w/o prongs.

 

There's a French grading company that slab coins where you can see the edges, not sure on the company name though.

 

I was pretty sure that one of the big three has a special slab specifically for edge lettering

 

If you are referring to the FOUR major TPGS, the BIG TWO plus the two others, they all use prong holders depending on the coin.

 

It's a great coin but wow. Tetradrachms are insane right now. I only got a few at the beginning of the year and haven't acquired one since then.

Even junk & common Alexandrian Tets have been going for more than I expect.

My "Top coins of 2021" list will be pretty short this year, if I even bother.

 

I was thinking of the ICG Presidential View holder. Still has prongs, though.

 

It’s been my experience that most every Heritage auction result is a shock. You have really want the item to be successful.

 

John, I decided to put the brakes on Heritage auctions today. Bidders are buying their slabbed coins without restraint. I'll keep an eye on their auctions just to see how crazy they can get .

 

I actually won a nice group lot on the same Heritage sale, for a very reasonable price. Guess what- the coins in the lot were not in the best shape (around fine) and not slabbed

 

This modern coin collecting mentality of ‘slab and grade are all that matters’ seems to be infiltrating our beloved Ancients market.
Unsophisticated investors with more money than sense I guess.
As long as they stay away from the more gritty fine style VF’s and otherwise interesting coins I suppose we can co-exist.

 

Salus reverse types are one of the most commonly encountered of Faustina's denarii, accounting for 8% of all denarii in the Reka Devnia hoard issued under Marcus Aurelius. I don't mean 8% of Faustina's denarii; I mean 8% of all denarii under Marcus, including Lucius Verus, Marcus, Commodus and Faustina. This is the sort of coin that CNG would throw into a group lot because it's not worth selling individually. Somebody collects slabs, not coins ...



Here's mine, purchased for $32, albeit "back in the day."

 

So the slab-obsessed modern collectors are piling into the ancient market. And opportunistic auction houses and dealers are slabbing cheap coins and selling them for 5-10x their value. The buyers don't know what they're buying and are perfect examples of the Greatest Fool Theory in action. I can see the market flooding with slabbed common coins, and eventually the bubble will burst and these coins will again sell for what they're worth (ie very little).

 

Last month Louis Golino wrote a very insightful article for the Coin Week website: The Coin Analyst: Comparing Today's Booming Coin Market With the 1980s, see the link below. The coin market of the late 1980's & early 1990s endured a serious crash that coincided with a crash in commodities & the stock market. Leading the coin market crash were slabbed U.S. coins, especially silver dollars. When PCGS & NGC released census reports on exactly how many coins were graded in each condition, reality slapped collectors & dealers in the face . Since then we've seen gradeflation & market grading entering the market. Despite these new trends the market for slabbed coins is strong, including slabbed ancient coins. Eventually census numbers for slabbed ancient coins will play an important role in determining their value & corrections in the market will occur. In the meantime, collectors "holding their breath" waiting for a market crash may be the real victims of the Greatest Fool Theory.

The Coin Analyst: Comparing Today’s Booming Coin Market With the 1980s (coinweek.com)

 

Everyone is noticing the huge inflation in rare and slabbed coins recently, but even Imperial Coinage bottom feeders like myself are noticing huge increases over the past six months or so. Any coin with a remotely interesting reverse is flying past my predictions for price realized.

 

A very interesting article, thanks for sharing. Who knows how the economy will be like, 6 months, a year, or longer from now. I do however hope this will cool down, but it's of course impossible to predict if that will be the case. The advantage I have however, is that I'm in it for the long run, not for the short investment profit. I can take it easy, buy less now, and intensify my buying when prices go down.

 

A crash is inevitable because the market is increasingly being flooded with overpriced slabbed common ancient coins. One dealer I know openly boasted that he slabs common high quality raw coins and sells for 10x mark-up. If he’s doing it, so is everyone else. How many $1000 Gordian III ants can the market absorb? It’s obviously unsustainable.

 

encase it in a lucite cube? http://franciscomatto.org/en/obra.php

 

Limes, I like your approach to the present coin market, "take it easy, buy less now, and intensify my buying when prices go down", & I'm doing the exact same thing . I've got 4 bids in auctions closing this month, & they will be my last bids for the year & beyond. Reflecting on my purchases this year, I can honestly say that I overpaid for most of them .