Okay.... went to the show again and made only one purchase and wouldn't you know it, another ancient (well, 1028 - 1034 AD.)....one with the image of Christ on it. Byzantine Empire, Class B Anonymous Follis, time of Romanus III, 1028 - 1034 AD. Constantinople Mint. Bust of christ facing.
Congrats, you got one kind of ancient I have yet to bother with, Byzantine. But I do like yours, has good details compared to some ive seen.
Thanks, Mat. That was one of the reasons I picked it up because it did have nice details compared to everything else in it's price range. I really wanted to get another silver Greek or even a silver Roman but I just couldn't bring myself to cough up an extra $80 to $100. This was in my budget for ancients and it was a nice one.
Lol thats my problem. I found a Plautilla roman that I liked but its over $100 and I havent pulled the trigger. Shes kinda rare but meh, will wait.
It looks like I did pretty good! I paid $30 and I found this: Look at the one on the right side second row... http://www.ancientresource.com/lots/coins_byzantine1.html
Christ folles or any facing portrait coins grade according to what facial features remain. This one is nice with both eyes but could be nicer with a nose. I am amazed at some of the prices asked for coins with only a head outline. Add to the easily worn away face the fact that many of these are double struck and it is clear why fully clear ones sell for more. This is easily worth $30+ but the link given above strikes me as pushing it a bit with some of the coins. I might also mention that, in addition to the face, it is nice to have legends remaining so the top notch coins will have both a nose and letters. Those always sell over my price range. I think yours lost legend detail more to the doublestriking than anything else.
Thanks, Doug! I agree with what you are saying about the details. I checked a few sites, including ebay and was surprised at the wide range of prices. Even my dealer had his coins priced, not so much as to what the coin was, but as to how nice the strike was or how interesting the images were. Most were overpriced compared to what was on the internet sites, but I guess when you have the coin in hand and are inexperienced, you'll buy what looks nice even if it may be common.
Some will disagree with my statement but I believe that rarity is much less a factor in ancient coins than in US. There are a million types of ancient coins and several thousand of them are represented by either just one or a handful of specimens. No one is seriously trying to have a complete set so we rarely see two collectors get into a serious bidding war over a boring coin or minor variation simply because it is rare. The big money goes for the interesting and the beautiful. Among the interesting, higher prices go for better looking examples and among the beautiful, higher prices go for the more interesting. It helps to be both but a coin has to be one or the other to be in demand. Many of us collect coins that 'speak' to us for whatever reason and there are thousands of opinions as to what speaks most loudly. That means we can collect rarities in our chosen speciality and pay less than for nicer looking common coins that appeal to more people. Jesus is a high demand subject so you will pay more for good looking ones than you will for lower grade rarities within the series. No one owns an album with slots for ancients making you feel bad that you lack, for example, a 1909S VDB. You buy what looks nice, what has a link to someone you know in history or whatever strikes you for whatever reason. One way to collect is to pick a subject about which no one else cares, form a nice collection about which you write a book that interests other people into wanting the coins you have now made interesting. Ancients sell for a much wider range of prices based on what a seller thinks he can get for any given coin from the people likely to buy coins from him. Dealers with little experience and a small customer base will sell equal items more cheaply than dealers with a reputation for the best and many customers who believe anything they sell is worth having. I recommend never buying a coin that you do not understand clearly why it was priced higher than another coin. If it doesn't look better to you and is not more interesting to you, perhaps it won't be to anyone else either. Buy what looks nice to you. As you become more experienced, what looks nice to you may change but you rarely do the right thing buying a coin that strikes you as not worth the asking price just because someone else told you it was something you should have. Plautilla? When it is time for you to own her coin, you will understand enough about her place in history that you want the coin. First, I'd have coins of her husband, in-laws and just about everyone else who issued coins within 20 years either way. If, however, you find her pretty, interesting or whatever now, this may be the best coin to buy now.
The adage "collect what you like" certainly applies here. I've been a member of one of the ancient forums for a couple of years and found a lot of coins that I found interesting but it seems I have a penchant for the expensive ones. I really like the ones that I've picked up over the last couple of days and I'm more interested in the imagery rather than putting together a set (at this time).
I agree Doug but even in ancients, (like this one), there are "sets" and a collector will accept a lower grade example to complete a set. I have all of these, A through M, but have never found a F I really liked, but I have a couple of dogs. An interesting sidepoint to these is that they are replicas of famous portraits from cathedrals around the empire. Most of these do not survive, so this series of coins are the only way today we have an idea of what that church's art looked like. Great series and cool coin Ikandiggit.
Randy, If you want to get the series, the harder ones, especially in nice grades, are F, J, and M I have found. Maybe saying my F coins are dogs are unfair, since they are good considering others I have seen, short of $800 or more. They are scarce in all grades, especially above Fine. I have a VF coin but badly overstruck and one in F with strike weakness. They have coins labelled N and I believe O but its very debatable if they truly belong to this series. Doug was spot on when he said the predominant grading feature is Christ's face for most portraits. The level of detail there is what you will pay the money for, granted it is not corroded. For the seated portraits like F the full face is about impossible so the overall grade of the coin is what determines its value. Interestingly, there are many variants of these coins, especially the "I" reverses, so someone really researching them can buy very rare coins for common prices, but that kinda goes with most ancients I guess. Chris
