Severus Alexander

OK, so I logged into fee-bay and this had one minute to go with no bids. I bought it. The sellers pictures is all I have, does it look like anything wrong?

 

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Not the best surfaces but looks OK.

 

Hard to tell much from these images. Mat probably has the right of it.

 

I'm not an expert or even a seasoned novice.

I would have let it go unless it was cheap because it's too hard for my inexperienced eyes to see what's going on.

 

Wait till you have it in hand. Take your own images and post them here for comparison. I've found that most coins I have purchased look much better in hand. And I've also found that many sellers on Ebay do not use quality images, but I can't figure out why not.

 

Actually it was cheap...$25, that's why I had some doubts.

 

Severus Alexander is a very easy ruler to find. Nothing is wrong with that coin pictured except for porous surfaces. Its not a bad coin, its just that better ones are very easy to find. As a hoarder, I don't mind it at all. Just buy some more as well.

 

No, that would be the going price. I just bought a coin on Ebay and in the pic it looked ordinary, but in hand it was a lustrous silvered beauty, so wait until you get yours in hand.

 

It looks Eastern (Antioch) and OK from the images.

 

I was about to say the coin looks ok to me as well........but M-man already said it best.

 

I still don't have a good handle on what ancient coins sell for.

 

It varies literally from one auction to another and the best way to get a feel for the current market value is to simply google and log on to acsearch or other vendor forums with sale info.

 

Its just experience sir. Lots of looking, paying attention, etc. One good thing to do is peruse a site like CNG. Pay attention to which coins and which conditions are sold separately, and which coins get grouped together in group lots, even if high grade. Searching completed auctions of Ebay can help too, though I find Ebay does not have good records of higher priced coins, and some decent coins sell too cheap at time.

Severus Alexander and Gordian III are two rulers really nice silver coins can be had for not much money. My max for a GIII in nice VF is $20, and even then I have too many of them.

The best part of building this knowledge base of what coins go for is you get to look at lots and lots of coins, and what is better than that? When in doubt, please just ask. Most of us really love talking about coins, and if we can help a friend at the same time its even better!

Trust me, its seems overwhelming, but once you narrow in on what interests you, you will naturally get a good idea. My problem is I buy about everything, so I set myself up for failure at times since you cannot be an expert in everything. I just bought a group of Greek silver. I will post it here in a few days. I don't know if I overpaid or not, since they are not my thing really, but a dealer friend had them, and being a hoarder, I had to buy. Don't do what I do, research your coins before you buy.

 

All collectibles but ancient coins in particular are 'worth' what supply and demand dictate. A few people specialize in the coins of lesser known emperors who ruled for a long time and made many coins. Other than those few, collectors soon have their fill of these coins so they remain cheap unless they are especially nice or especially interesting. I don't think Severus Alexander has any especially interesting types and this one is not especially nice. I do think it being the Antioch mint makes it 'better' than it would be had it been from Rome but that might make it a $15 coin rather than a $10 coin to my way of thinking.

Lately I have been trying to sell some of my lower grade and lesser interest duplicates. The ones that return their 'investment' after paying expenses and postage are things owned for 20 years. You will be able to sell this one for over $25, perhaps, in 2035. I've made bigger mistakes this summer. That is the hobby as we know it.

 

Really? I think this is interesting & special. Fairly scarce too. Maybe not to you though.

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/a-white-whale-caught.267978/#post-2224570

 

Considering Severus Alexander:

The nicest MARS VLTOR reverses I've seen - thus far - have been from Severus Alexander. I'll follow this with: I'm a new collector to ancients so the breadth and depth of that statement is seriously circumspect.

 

That makes me feel so much better, I'll only be 90 years old. : - )

 

My biggest problem is that when I look (admittedly on e-bay) the silver Roman coins I see are all relative big bucks coins. I thought this one was reasonable, although not in any way comparable to the jewels people on this forum have. Meh...I'm going to keep it, so I don't really have to be concerned about resale.

 

The image is a scan, and scans always make coins look like crap. I predict you will be very pleasantly surprised when you get it. And I think you got it for a decent price.

Here's an exercise for anyone wanting to learn how to size up coins with scanned images: scan your own coins and compare the images to what you see in hand. Minor surface irregularities will be grossly exaggerated, any color will be washed out, and the tops of the devices will be very bright compared to lower features.

Learning how to read a coin from a scanned image is a great skill for cherry-picking off eBay.

 

Could be your seeing the few dealers who pollute the listings with high prices for what is mostly junk or average quality coins. There is threads on them here.