ANCIENTS: Baltimore Show report part one - 2 Faustas came home and one didn't

Today was a very big day for me with the coin show in Baltimore (3 hours away). I spent way more that planned and even got a couple nice coins. Tomorrow I will be offline most of the day so I'll rush these first two in this post and do more next week.

Both coins are Fausta, wife of Constantine the Great. One is boldly mintmarked from Siscia. The other has a very, very weak strike in the reverse exergue and a flat spot in the obverse hair but still cost more than the Siscia. The same dealer had another like this last with a bold mintmark but very flat head on the reverse figure and was offered at four times the price. I left that one. My coin came with a CNG sales tag from the 1990's showing it sold then for almost exactly twice what I paid today. I looked it up and saw it was the same coin.


Now the questions:
What made the coin with flat mintmark sell for more than the Siscia specimen with clear mintmark?
Was the coin I left with bold mintmark but flat head on the reverse figure worth 4X the price? ...any more???
Why did someone pay twice as much in 1995 than I paid today?
Would you even buy this defective coin at any price? (Trick question; remember that I bought it.


These were not the nicest coins I got today but they illustrate a couple points I wonder if many will appreciate. Eventually I'll post some of the others but I am wiped out now. It was a very big day!

 

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Great Newps (New Purchases) Doug!

Now the questions:
1) What made the coin with flat mintmark sell for more than the Siscia specimen with clear mintmark?

No Idea

I do know that you will give a great reason though!

2) Was the coin I left with bold mintmark but flat head on the reverse figure worth 4X the price? ...any more???

I'm not sure... I don't know this coinage

3) Why did someone pay twice as much in 1995 than I paid today?

Just a Guess, Auction Fever, Drunk (x6), really wanted the coin to complete a set.

4) Would you even buy this defective coin at any price? (Trick question; remember that I bought it.

I would... I love stories and I know that this coin will have a great one!

 

Just an amateurs guess DS. Is the clear date SIS issued after she was declared an Augusta. While the worn SIS was issued before she was Augusta, thus being made in less numbers. Perhaps the difference in price may reflect a recent hoard of the type unearthed since the earlier sale. Of course there are differences in these 2 coins in the manufacture of the dies, used to strike these cobs. Just a guess, ya know.

 

Only thing I see is the top coin has like a draped bust and different coiled hair and the bottom doesn't.

 

Salus ?

 

Hint: Can the coin with a weak mintmark be assigned to a mint? Does that make a difference? The coin I left behind was asking 4X the price but had overall the same amount of detail. It was just weak in places that make less difference to people (reverse top and obverse bottom). Both coins were definitely the same mint. The seller suggested they might be the same dies but I did not check that.

Listen to Windchild. Auction Fever must have been at play and I know that there are some here that suffer from this specific form of the illness.

 

I know the celators occasionally tracked the hairstyles of a particular Augusta. Perhaps the first is a rare Princess Leia type?

 

Lon?

 

*sigh*

 

Your Mood proves my point though

 

There is a particular form of auction fever known as "the CNG effect." $50 coins become $100 coins, $100 coins become $200 coins. That is still better than being Nomos'd. (I'll leave you to imagine the ribald connotations of the later!)

 

PLON from CNG 35 lot 1027. I have said several times that I do not understand why so many English speaking collectors seem addicted to London mint coins but it is a fact of life. I do like the pinwheel hair knot. The Siscia coin is a common type and the demand from people for that mint is not high so it makes little difference if the coin is better or worse when comparing demand to a London considered rare. The main factor here is the CNG factor. This coin is not worth what it brought in that sale or anything close.

 

Yours is in considerably better shape than mine but I do have a PLON with a visible mintmark.



I've looked for these before and they are not common, this one was a much appreciated gift from a fellow collector and friend ​

 

Wow, nice eye-appeal, Bobby-H ... dark black/green patina is eye-poppin'!!

 

Very nice pickups Doug. I do love the hairstyle on the first one, i have never seen similar.

 

Here is mine...


Fausta (324-326 A.D)
AE3
O: FLAV MAX FAVSTA AVG Mantled bust right. Bare headed; waved hair drawn into a bun at the back.
R: SALVS REI-PVBLICAE Fausta standing facing, head left, holding Constantine II and Constantius II as babies.
STR dot-in-crescent
Trier RIC 483
3.15g
19mm