AV Stater ND Koson circa 45BC

AV Stater ND circa 45BC struck by King Kotison of Scythia Olbia Mint for his ally
Brutus/Cassius in Cicil War vs Marcus Antonius and Octavian

 

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WOW! This one I really like! Love the historical connection

 

Now you ARE making me jealous!!!!!!!!!

 

this thing used to be really rare, then there was a hoard or something...

 

Great coin! I have seen a few of these recently. Love the design, I might need one of these.

 

I would love to add that coin to my collection !!!! SIGH!!!!

I think I'm even more jealous than Bing!!!

 

Indeed... just ask HJB (quoted about half-way down):
Gold Looted From Ancient Empire Returned to Romania

 

What a fascinating story, thanks for the link! I suppose this coin has become rare again, and sought after.

 

^not really. one of the cheapest av staters available today.

 

Man, panzer => that's a ridiculously cool OP-example (congrats on another sweet goldie)

... I don't have any gold coins (I just have a sweet El Hekte example from Lesbos)

 

it would probably help to take your lovely coins out of the flips for the pic panzerman, clearer and less reflection.

 

I agree! I will redo them that method....going to be a tedious job, over 600 to photograph!

 

They were never really rare, just not so well known. The first hoards came to light hundreds of years ago but were absorbed into wealthy and royal collections, where they were not well documented. Romania laid claim to all of them in the world with the idea that they all came from one spot, and recently. But further research showed that hoards came from other countries and from centuries in the past. Last I heard Romania is not pursuing them like they used to.

 

Yes, you see quite a few at auctions. The AV Staters from Kolchis region are a different matter, very few known....perhaps up to 10 examples. That is for the 5 types of Stater/Distater.

 

Here's a good article with some background information:

http://www.calgarycoin.com/reference/articles/koson/koson.htm

And some articles detailing some legal background first, and some success stories of repatriation:

http://www.inc-cin.org/assets/pdf/articles/laws-romania.pdf

http://www.nineoclock.ro/koson-pseu...overed-from-germany-spain-poland-and-belgium/

http://www.immoss.ro/index.php?section=articol&screen=index&id=11777&lang=eng

Coins are still being taken from collectors today. So, people might ask, should I own one of these? That's a matter for individual thought. But any quick check of any auction archives show that they are still being sold each month.

 

when I started collecting they were going 20-30K a piece, that's quite pricey in those days I'm sure there weren't very many around.
that said, auction data was also much harder to access then so it could also had been influenced by the small(er) sample sizes.

 

Here are photos of my uncle....he is the fellow with bandaged head.

 

I'm not sure when you started collecting, but when the hoards came to market the lesser examples were about $500-750, the better ones twice or more than that. I bought and sold dozens under $500 (I was a small dealer then as now, and focused on those examples which exhibited more die rust and other problems). I have no idea what the best examples sold for back then, but I can imagine NFA sold them that high!

 

As you can see, I got my example from Gorny&Mosch. It was perfect FDC, start price was 750E, think it went for 1500E.

John

 

SS503, formerly 103. This unit had some the latest king tigers, produced dec.44-jan.45, with ambush camo. They fought mostly around outskirts of berlin.