Roman coin hoard found in Switzerland

If there are so many, you can certainly buy one elsewhere. The head archaeologist of the canton merely says that the find belongs to the public, not to the person who found it. Whether some of the coins will be sold later ... who knows.

Christian

 

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yup!

 

Ironic, ain't it? Oh, and the other word they use is 'conserve'........

 

Lets try to be a little better than the press. There never was an emperor Maxmillian but that is close enough to Maximianus that we know what was meant just like we know that Phobus was actually Probus. It is quite appropriate for the museum to take the coins and clean them. They should be displayed and studied as a group but eventually (not this year) I suspect some will filter into the market. The farmer 'might' get a finder's fee according to the article. I don't know anything about Switzerland (somebody ask Dane) but the fee could be substantial or being placed on a 'to be watched' list according to where you are. It would be a bad time for that farmer to start spending money. It is a shame but par for the course that the journalist did not fact check anything (like the fact that there are several rulers between Aurelian and Maximinian and their coins probably outnumber either of the termini. The span here includes the possibility that there could be a coin of one of the really big names. You will see a really big announcement if they find a Saturninus. It was pointed out that the person who buried the coins selected recently minted items of a period of several years rather than taking random finds so it is unlikely that there will be a lot of Carausius or others known for raggedy coins.

Can you buy a coin like this easily? As a mater of fact one of you did buy one from JA sale last week that once was mine. I hope you like it. I bought it from Frank Robinson in the 90's but have 'upgraded'. If you collect for a few decades you may find yourself upgrading and passing on your 'starter' coins to someone else. Ordinary coins of the types shown can be $15 or $50 depending on many factors. Probus is a specialty of one of our CT members. He owns a lot of them. I only have about 60.
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/probus.html
and not as many Aurelian...
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/aurelian.html
You can even buy a group lot of similar types if you watch the back of sale listings from some big sellers. My sample below was only 33 coins. You will rarely find more than a hundred is such a lot but you can always buy several. These are not quite as nice as what I see in the Swiss bunch so you might need to bid higher.
https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=166479
The point here is you don't need to go into mourning because you can't buy a Swiss find just yet. You don't want them anyway. Remember they have been cleaned and PCGS won't touch them.

 

True =) when it comes to ancient coins i am new at them, ive been studying us coins for the past four years though so i am definitely familiar with them but i am new to ancient coins i was wondering, how does corrosion effect the value of ancient coins, how does cleaning effect the value of ancient coins, and what ancient coins do you feel are a good place to start at, and how much should i pay for this coin? - Thank you

 

Or than those who love a little Spain bashing on each and every occasion. Then again, the Daily Mail is not a shining example when it comes to "the" press.

Two articles in German (videos partly in Swiss German) about the find:
http://www.srf.ch/news/regional/aar...her-muenzschatz-im-aargau-per-zufall-entdeckt
https://www.ag.ch/de/bks/kultur/archaeologie_denkmalpflege/archaeologie/grabungen/ueken/ueken.jsp

They do list Aurelianus (270-275), Tacitus (275-276), Probus (276-282), Carinus (283-285), Diocletianus (284-305), Maximianus (286-305), with the "youngest" coins being from 294. That list of rulers is not complete though, according to the texts.

Christian

 

Welcome Brandon. There seems to be a lot of new people beginning to collect Ancients. Since I have no idea what your budget might be, I can't tell you where you should begin. Read the threads here on CT. Find coins you are interested in collecting. Many coins sell for less than $25 and, of course, many sell for many multiples of that. Also, forget what you know about modern coins. It's a whole different ball game with Ancients.
Take a look at the wares for sale on Vcoins.com. You'll get some idea of prices as well as types just looking through that site.

Once again, welcome here.

 

IMHO ancients pay a lot more attention to what I would call common sense in grading or pricing. All coins are cleaned so the amount of value change due to cleaning depends on whether the coin is better looking or made ugly by the cleaning. Most people would rather have a VF with good cleaning than an EF that has been butchered or a F that spent the last 2000 years in a sealed jar that protected it 100% (almost never happens). Corrosion can be minor or even look good (we call that patina) so the effect is minor or it can be just plain ugly and remove 99% of a coin's value. Usually we each weigh the various factors like wear, centering, strike and corrosion and decide whether the coin is one we like or one we don't. Those who like coins more and are willing to pay more buy more. Those of us who want better, want cheaper or have a limited budget spend less.

Below are two Roman coins of the same type - Caligula copper 'as' (1/16th denarius) Vesta seated reverse. One has more wear, smoother surfaces and a green patina. The other is at least a whole grade less worn but is corroded and brown. Which coin do you want? 'Neither' is an option just as is 'both'. If both, which would you pay more for? How much more?

 

I like them both enough to say I would pay about the same. I love the portrait on the second, but I like the smoother surfaces of the first. I guess I'm just wishy-washy on the subject. I find something I like about most, if not all, ancient coins.

 

I wouldn't pay for either, but not because I don't like them both, but only because between the Scaurus denarii and the auction purchases from JA, and all my previous purchases of Ancients in the last 3 weeks, I've blown my coin budget for November and December.

If Iit wasn't for that, I would pay more for the beautiful jade patina, but not a lot more. The brown coin is still beautiful even with the imperfections.

Anyway, I am now trully done for the year ...but what a magnificent closing to the year it was!

 

I would pay a good amount more for the top Caligula. I can't get past the pitting on the bottom one.

 

Doug is being a bit sneaky here. I would take the second coin first, knowing I could find the first any day of the week. It seems to me the CAESAR DIVI etc. types are less common than CAESAR AVG etc.

 

OK, they are different but I didn't know it made a big price difference. I would prefer the second for the Pronepos legend but agree with VK that the pitting is a deal breaker. I only saved the pitted one when I bought the green because the two make a good point about wear vs. surface.

 

OMG, who cleaned those coins? Forget about getting them into a PCGS or NGC slab now, They are ruined! There are no coins worth collecting unless they are in a slab to protect the coins from inadvertent touching or breathing upon. May as well put them back in the ground...



I can keep going to get your blood boiling a little more if you want.

 

The "cleaning" they refer to is the good old-fashioned American cleaning of your bank account as always...

 

Nice thread. It really promotes the study of Ancient numismatics.

It's good to see that the Ancient forum has a current buzz despite these coins' being more than 1700 years old.

This subforum has had as much action as any other forum on cointalk.

(It is hard to believe that there was once a debate about whether a separate Ancient subforum could sustain interest.)

Strong work, everyone.

Back to the thread....

Here are two related youtube clips:






guy

 

Some more were found by the same farmer, or rather his son this time. "Only" 50 additional coins though, so the current total is 4,218. The archaeologists expect a few more pieces to be in the ground here and there. Simply due to the fact that this has been used as farmland for many years, with plows or whatever going through it. About 250 coins have been restored so far.

Christian