I got email from Nomos on their recent fixed price list. All of the coins are high quality/ but mucho $$$$. Then I saw a MS AV Solidus from Leo III obv/ Constantine V rev. The images of both emperors were supberb/ legends fully struck/ super nice coin. Price 1500 Swiss Frcs.it took me 5 secs to hit buy button.
Wonderful gold coin! From the 5th to the 8th c. the Byzantine Empire minted gold in industrial quantities, this why early Byzantine gold is often relatively affordable for modern collectors. I wonder how they got so much gold, often to be hoarded just fresh from the mint, like this coin.
Thanks for nice comments! Seems from 700-1100AD gold coinage was rarely struck in European nations/ replaced by silver. However/ the Islamic Caliphates/ Indian Hindu Kingdoms and the Byzantine Empire kept minting gold coinage. Reason, probably they had sources of the metal from mines. The Visigoths in Hispania only minted gold upto their defeat (Umayyads)in 714. European production started up after gold mines were discovered in Kremnitz/ Hungary/ and Spanish establishing Colonies in New World + Portugal doing same in India/ Guinea/ Brazil. John
It is true that under the Carolingian dynasty (9th-10th c.) gold coinage gradually disappeared from Western Europe. From the 10th to the mid-13th c. all coinage in France, for example, royal or feudal, was in debased silver : no gold, no bronze too. This why the word "money" in in French "argent". A few gold coins could circulate but they were all dinars from Islamic countries or "besants" from the Byzantine Empire. The economical expansion in late medieval Europe needed gold to maintain a dynamic commerce. A few gold coins were minted in Italy, France, etc. from the second half of the 13th c. but gold coinage remained very rare in Europe until Spain invaded South America in the early 16th c. and brought home tons of gold from the New World.
A wonderful coin! The strike and centering are outstanding. Yes, fixed price lists sometimes have coins at reasonable prices versus what one pays in an auction, after the buyer's fee, taxes, currency conversion and any other of the thousand little cuts are factored into the final total due.
I find fixed price lists can to be more fun than a darned auction. All it takes is one other bidder to drive prices to the moon. The last time I got a bargain in an auction was 30 years ago when I got a Massachusetts Sam’s Inn Civil War token for a “cover bid.” Since then it’s been hard just to get a fair deal. I often feel like I have over paid. Just because something brought a price at auction does not mean it’s really worth that. Outside of that venue, it can sell for a lot less. Auctions are better for dealers because they are open to bidding on a wider range of items. Collectors are usually more focused on fewer, specific items.
It also depends on the country and type of material one is seeking. Also times change. Coins which used to appear on dealers' pricelists in the past are now found primarily at auction. In world and ancient coins, which concerns this thread, many dealers are not able to carry the wide variance of ancient coins that collectors seek.
I find a few things sometimes mainly on world coin pricelists. World coin dealers sometime will have decent prices on some ancients, other times they are sky high. I find US dealers almost always have sky high prices on ancients. Frank Robinson just had a "cheapo" list Sunday morning. I "hope" I got a few. I responded within 3 minutes, so might have been late.
