How much off-centering can you handle?

I do like Forvm very much, it's a place where you can learn a lot from very knowledgeable, helpfull and nice people, just like you would in a library

and

I do like Cointalk very much, it's a place where you can learn a lot from very knowledgeable, helpfull and nice people, while drinking a beer together just like you would in a pub

We need both

PS : and yes, Steve coming here made a lot for the raise of the ancient coin section, and it's attractiveness to others. your silliness is of great help and fun, keep goin'on coin bro' !!

Q

 

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To me, the word pub describes a place with more refined dart playing gentlemen than patronize a roadhouse in Texas where the band is protected from the rowdies by a steel cage. Of course there are a hundred other variations on the theme depending on locale and clientele. Which we are varies from time to time. My wife is a librarian. Modern librarians rarely say shush.

 

Well stated Doug. Thank you.

 

Very much agreed. Two different styles of forums...both needed, and no need to clone each other.

 

With ancient coins the more accurately centered they are the better.
For error collectors of machine made modern coins, the more off center they are, the better.

 

To answer you question....about this much....

 

With all the off-center coins in this thread, it makes me appreciate this coin even more. It seems to be very difficult to find Syracuse tetradrachms with all obverse devices on the flan. Here is the first coin I purchased when I returned to collecting ancients two years ago.

Even this one is not perfectly centered, but it is one of the few examples I've seen where the driver, the wheel under him, Nike, the horse's heads, and the sea serpent in the exergue are all on the flan...even about half the beading around the edge!

 

I'm reviving this thread to ask about this one. I'm curious if I'm alone in thinking this is kind of cool with Pegasus flying off of the coin.

 

Here is an off center coin of mine. Though the elephant's trunk is missing, I still love this coin.

 

Nice => that's a very cool coin, H8

 

You're not alone. I like it.

 

Well, it could be worse...

Lincoln Cent struck slightly off-center:

 

What I look for in an ancient coin is roughly the following:

1. Cost - Can I afford it, even theoretically?
2. Interest - how interested in the type am I? Does this even fit in my collection?
3. Eye appeal - Does the coin look nice? Does it speak to me?
   
4. Rarity - how available is the type to begin with?
5. Surface quality - Is it good metal? Was it overcleaned?
6. Centering - are well-centered pieces available at all in my price range? Are the important legends and devices on flan?
7. Strike and wear/grade - Is all the detail that I'd expect to be there given the amount of wear actually present?

Lower numbered items can override higher numbered items. That meant that this, although it's a nice coin (I have seen it in hand), did not make the grade:


If the obverse had been off center that much in the other direction, I wouldn't have even considered it. As it turned out, I ended up with a coin with just as nice a reverse and a much better centered obverse.

 

Funny. I wonder what percent off-center they'd put on the slab if you sent it in somewhere? 99%?

 

It is kind of cool if one thinks about it that way, but personally, the missing head of the pegasos would eventually get to me too much. But as a coin with a $50 obverse paired with a $500 reverse, I think it'll always be interesting to try and guess on which side of the average between the two figures the final selling price lands.

 

ahaha sorry, but I very rarely get to post this baby on an ancient-thread!!



=> yup, a Canadian dude has a Lincoln error coin!!

 

I think I fall in line with the consensus of opinion and prefer well centered examples if I can afford them. And my tolerance for coins with rough surfaces or off-centered devices seems to be growing smaller each passing month, although I'll probably still purchase one or more in the coming months....

This example is about as far off centered as I would prefer to go; Magna Graecia, didrachm, Neapolis:

 

Here's my little guy still trapped in plastic. I don't know much more then the label. SARONIC GULF. Aegina. Ca. 525-480 BC. AR stater. NGC VG, graffito, countermark