I had time this evening after an early Thanksgiving dinner to catalog and upload this new acquisition. Vespasian AR Tetradrachm Alexandria mint, 70-71 AD RPC 2425 (9 spec.) Obv: AYTOK KAIΣ ΣEBA OYVEΣΠAΣIANOY; Head of Vespasian, laurerate, r., date LΓ before neck Rev: AΛEΞANΔPEIA; Alexandria standing, l., with wreath and sceptre Ex Keith Emmett; Ex Sepcos, October 1979 This is one of those times when I decided the provenance was too good to pass up and decided to purchase instead of waiting for a nicer example. The coin is much better in hand and was obtained at a very reasonable price. Rare enough too that if I did wait it might be for a while !
That's a great coin, with nice provenance as the icing on the cake. I've made that decision many times myself lately, actually. I will certainly not pay an unreasonable price just for provenance, but I can generally be persuaded to pay retail-level prices for coins with good provenance much easier than for coins without it and in one instance I convinced myself to upgrade one of my denarii because I found a nicer one AND it had provenance. Call me crazy, but the lack of provenance on some of my coins has begun to bother me a bit and I've been trying to either find older provenance(by spending a lot of time in my growing catalog library), with some success, or simply upgrade coins to nicer examples with good provenance.
Provenance does give the coin some added desirability...and makes me feel a bit more comfortable purchasing them.... I think it's a cool example too!!!
A rugged tetradrachm IS pretty in my book. The Emmett provenance is certainly desirable, but I am not one to be bothered by coins with lack of provenance. After all, if a coin is authentic, it has provenance enough - it was minted by an ancient culture and traded by ancient hands, anonymous as those hands may be. Even after several years of collecting, those facts continue to fascinate me. Catalogers don't search for the prettiest coins in the world - they search for any half-way decent example of a particular type they can get their hands on. Personally, I would love to have a few of Lindgren's coins, but man, he collected some crap, just to get it into his books. That's not a criticism, mind you, but I've often passed on Lindgren's coins and paid more for better examples with no provenance. Each to his own.
Do not despair if your coin doesn't have provenance. Write in the back of your own ticket when you got it and from whom, and the next person that gets it will be glad to have a coin with 20 or 30 years provenance on it. Just being in your collection gives it provenance. And besides, you've got to start somewhere.
Ex. Emmet is always good to have in one's trays of alexandrian coins. IDK whether my Domitius Domitianus octadrachm is or isn't an ex Emmet, but being a plate coin in his Alexandrian coins book, is certainly a fact that counts in my appreciation of it. That Vespasian portrait is what it should be : strong and imperial Q
I too think it is "pretty"! Well, as pretty as Vespasian gets anyway. I collect these rough old BL tets and love the "big and chunky" feel and look. Good pick up!
=> baby got back!! (ya chubby-chaser) I like the Alexandrian Tets as well ... here is one of my favourites EGYPT, Alexandria. Saloninus. As Caesar, BI Tetradrachm AD 258-260 Dated RY 7 of Valerian I and Gallienus (AD 259/60) Diameter: 22 mm Weight: 13.00 grams Obverse: Bareheaded, draped, and cuirassed bust right Reverse: Eagle standing left, head right, holding wreath in beak; L Z (date) across field Reference: Köln 3005; Dattari (Savio) 5377; K&G 93.8
Yah, it's definitely one of my favs .... that poor lil' dude, eh? oh, and I'm personally calling it "best-in-show" because I've never seen any of you post a better example of Salonius (Alex BI-Tet) .... oh yah, that's a throw-down!! ... ummm, do you dudes have one of these? (a better one?) I love Fridays (I'm betting "tonight' is the night that I get booted-out!!)
What Bing said!!!! And here's a Salonius, Steve, not better and not a Alex Bi-Tet----just a coin to post:
