There seem to be quite a lot of these about at the moment..... I bought one before Christmas........maybe a hoard has been found somewhere? (they all look a bit green.) Sicily, Syracuse, Hieron II, AE20 Poseidon / Trident w. dolphins Sear 1223. 274-216 BC. Mine has a small patch of what i think may be BD on the neck.....treatment time I think. Cost me $10, which I am happy with although I am unsure what they normally fetch.....so I may have overpaid.
I would say $10 is a steal for that coin - it's very attractive. It's sharp enough to make me think tooling, but when I look at it closely I can't decide - which means if it has been tooled, it was done subtly and well. I don't know anything about recent hoards, but there are quite a few floating around, mostly in poor grades. Perhaps they're just common? I haven't found an example that suits my taste at a reasonable price though. I would want a sharper reverse, particularly in the case of the inscription ΙΕΡΩΝΟΣ and whatever controls the coin might have. The bust of Poseidon on the OP coin, however, is magnificent!
Wow YOC => $10 for "any" coin is a feat!! (congrats, coin-brother) Yah, I must admit that I spent a bit more than that for my example ($50, delivered) ... => eh? ... 2200 year old coin for $50 certainly seems like a fair enough deal to this guy!! (although, I think I like your $10 steal a bit better than my $50 sweetheart) => but oh my God => man, I still love this sweet coin of mine!! (cheers)
Mine was $13 in 1987. Greek Bronzes under $20 tend to be small or very small with boring types. Perhaps there is a hoard. I'm interested where they would market a large hoard since a new hoard of this date would be illegal to import into the US. They might get very cheap in the UK. Have the other Syracusan bronzes also become more available? There is another thread currently on CT with a fresh looking larger Hieron bronze. There are several decent types in the series.
Not tooled JA, just badly photoshopped to get it looking anything close to the coin in hand......it has come in as found state, with the promise that I can buy 28 more. I will leave this coin, but some of the others need a clean from the pictures. This is 11 of the 28 he has available........not all Hieron though. These are all 10$ apiece, but only a few are good IMO. Sometimes you just have to take a gamble.....a few rarities will justify it...(I hope!) He promises more each time I ask, so who knows how many he has??
He has emailed me today......these look more and more like an uncleaned lot, so I may pass. I have been burnt on uncleaned lots in the past month or so....only small ones thankfully. 4 of these look ok, but I am not sure whats under the grime on the others. Hes asking $60 for this lot. do I , dont I ??
I have got pics of the other side, just didnt post it. they seem to be same grade as the coin I posted on its own, but they wont give an xray image of whats underneath... This is the picture he sent me of the 8 coins of which the OP coin is top left, when i first contacted him. I bought the OP coin to see what it was like, the others pictured seem to be a nice grade.... I imagine if I ask him what the origin of these is he will say an old collection, they always do!........
