Hello. – I am new in term of numismatic, and have some questions due to my ignorance as I failed to gather sufficient information from google and the homepage for the numismatic association in Denmark. Those who don’t want to waste time on me are warned. I want to know how the financial crises from 2008 affected the prices of numismatic coins? I have read a thread from 2009 about the consequences of the crises. An Indian said that in Mumbai the numismatic society has broken as none or few came to auctions. A Spaniard stated similar thing in Madrid. – However a third debater then asserted that Greek and Roman coins were unaffected by the crises. So please tell me. Are the prices on Greek and Roman coins lower or status quo after 2008? If we agree that a certain Byzantine folis is worthy 50 euro today, then how worthy was it prior to 2008-crises? And how about a Byzantine Solidus gold for 500 euro today? How worth would it be prior to 2008? And what would happen to that 500euro-worthy Solidus Gold if the gold price is reduced 50% tomorrow? Thanks you for any help you can provide.
I got into ancients in 2009 and find the prices have gone up a bit pretty much every year. Ive read on here and other sites that it was much cheaper, even in the early 2000s compared to now. I think ancients are just gonna get stronger in the years ahead. And the price of gold or silver doesnt affect them like they do moderns.
I personally collect American coins and might not be of much help to you, but thought I'd provide my perspective. From what I've seen, the coin market over here has only become stronger! When housing prices crashed and the stock market saw large declines, the best asset for many people to invest in was gold/silver and numismatics. Prices on US coins haven't increased rapidly, but small gains while everything else was decreasing made them particularly appealing to the investor class.
I presume that “ancients” means ancient coins. So the worthy of the ancients and American numismatic coins have not decreased, but increased? - amazing for you. Can you tell me how much? Are we talking about 2% ? 10%? or 20%? I just want to have a sense of how much the increasing was.
It's really hard to generalize on how much coins have increased or decreased. In the U.S., the coins that have increased consistently are the more rare coins that are of markedly higher quality than others, often very high grade, always stunning in appearance. These are the coins that come up for auction once in a great while and make bidders think that they can pay up now or wait for an unknown amount of time before another like it shows up again. It's even hard to generalize as to what kind of increase these have seen since 2008, but 50% would not be unreasonable for some. At the other end of the spectrum are unpopular coins that may be in mediocre condition and not terribly attractive. These are probably still in dealers' stock books from 2008 with the same prices on them as they had then. They'll also still be there 7 years from now. One U.S. series that seems to have had softening prices over the past 7 years is the classic commemoratives (1892-1954). While the series comprises arguably some of the finest numismatic art in U.S. history, the coins are readily available, and collectors are picking over those that are available for the ones that are very attractive, leaving run-of-the-mill coins to languish.
Just for clarification: the coins messydesk labeled as ”mediocre condition and not terribly attractive”, does it also entail the Byzantine Solidus worth around 500Euro or 1000Euro? In any case: So the conclusion here is that Ancients and American coins has increased its value a little bit as long as we are not talking about the extremely rarely coins. – It is noted. Thank you.
I have collected Byzantine follis and solidi for about 18 years now. There really has been no direction but up. The same solidus that today sells for 500 Euro was 100 Euro in 2000, (accounting for Euro appreciation). Roman gold is even worse. Most ancient coins have been appreciating over this timeframe. Part of it is just inflation, but part of it is there is no good place to put money nowadays, and along with other antiques rare coins have had strong returns from investors.
Only quality ancient Greek and Roman coins have gone up in value (and quite a bit). Low quality coins (VF an lower) have stayed the same or declined (especially 4th century bronzes) in value, safe for the rarer types. Another thing to take into account is the MOU the USA has since 2011 with several "ancient coin countries": this heas led to an increase in pedigreed ancient coins.
Um, I have to disagree. I see coins across the board going up. Yes, lower grade items have not gone up as much, but are still double of what I paid 15 years ago, and even more important selection has gone down. Since the OP speaks specifically of Byzantine, I will speak of a few data points from the top of my head. A nice VF Justinian large follis, say year 12, used to be around $100 15 years ago. I thought that was high so only bought a couple. Well today try to find one under $250 or so. Same with his solidi. They used to go for $100-150 in 1998. Today they are around the $500 mark for a nice VF. Let's look at something more common like a Class A2 anonymous bronze in F. Lower grade coin, but somewhat popular. In F they are very common, and do not show any detail of Jesus' face. These used to be in dealer pick boxes for $10-15. Today, its a $40 coin. In VF they used to be $20-30 coins, today they are $100. So yes, really crummy LRB's, and some F-aVF exceedingly common LRB's have not gone up, but nearly everything else I see has. I would love Doug, Warren, or other long timers opinions as well. Maybe I am wrong and have just remembered incorrectly.
”The same solidus that today sells for 500 Euro was 100 Euro in 2000” Medoraman, would you kindly tell me how much a today’s 500-worth solidus used to cost around 2008? I understand that you say that its prices has rose to around 5 times, but I am seeking for a 2008-prices. ”A nice VF Justinian large follis, say year 12, used to be around $100 15 years ago. I thought that was high so only bought a couple. Well today try to find one under $250 or so.” Would you please tell me if you remember how much that follis costs around 2008?
From memory, 2008 was about halfway, meaning the solidus was around $300 and the follis around $150 or so. Like I said, just from seeing realized prices. If one was inclined, I would check out CNG completed auctions and not auction dates and realized prices to check out pricing history. CNG archives are a tremendous resource for pricing history as long as you try to compare apples to apples and account for one off bid irregularities.
