Here's your chance to show off. Well, I'm going to show off, anyway. I'm going into lots of detail here -- doesn't mean anyone else has to. I don't know if this was my best coin buy, but my most recent really good buy with ancient coins was a Sabean imitation of an Athenian Owl that I bought through eBay from a guy in Lebanon infamous for his misattributions, halting English, and occasionally really good buys. Here's a picture from the seller, fairly small but large enough to see what the coin is: http://rg.cointalk.org/misc/sabean.html The seller described the coin merely as an Owl, apparently not knowing anything about it, its rarity, or its market value. Knowledge is power, as they say. The coin was actually struck not in Athens but in Saba, Southern Arabia, which is currently a part of Yemen, sometime during the 3rd or 2nd century BC. The coin is listed and pictured in David Sear's Greek Coins and Their Values (SG 6112) and elsewhere. The Z on Athena's cheek on the obverse is a Sabean denomination mark. I paid about one fourth of its market value. But here's the really interesting part. Saba is referred to as Sheba in the Old Testament, as in the Queen of Sheba (Sheba is the English equivalent of Sh'va which is the transliteration of the Hebrew word for Saba). The story of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba appears not only in the Bible but is also cited by various ancient Assyrian, Greek, and Roman writers. Hearing of his wisdom, the queen from the South traveled north, probably around 950-930 BC, to test the Israelite king with "hard questions." The meeting was a success and the two nations began trading heavily with one another. The Sabeans also traded heavily with the Greeks, hence their copying the famous Athenian Owl tetradrachms some 700 years later. Athenian Owls were the world's first widely used international coinage. Minting began in the 6th century BC and continued without debasement though various design evolutions for half a millennium, an amazing run for a single coin motif. Their production helped finance the building of the Parthenon, and they were the principle medium of exchange for Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, among others whose thinking formed the very basis of our civilization. Athenian Owls were copied not only in Southern Arabia but also in Judea, Egypt, Syria, and Bakria. Athenian Owls are considered to be the most famous of ancient coins. They're fabulously high-relief -- sculpture-like. The obverse features Athena, goddess of both wisdom and warfare and patron of Athens, while the reverse features her attribute, the owl, still a symbol of wisdom today. Among the people enamored with the classical Athenian Owls, those minted between 449 and 413 BC, was President Theodore Roosevelt, who carried one as a pocket piece. It, along with the coinage of Alexander the Great, was his inspiration for redesigning U.S. coinage in the early 20th century. This led to the Golden Age of U.S. coins and the Saint, Walker, Standing Liberty quarter, the three most classical, and beautiful, of U.S. coins.
Your enthusiasm is infectious, to be sure. Quibbling over details should not dampen your spirit for collecting. You should know, of course, that gushing and gollying aside, some of the things that draw you to this coin may not be exactly as you believe them. For instance, you said: "Athenian Owls were the world's first widely used international coinage." But I would look to the Persian sigloi and darics and perhaps even Kyzikene staters to also be "widely used" and "international." Of course, Owls were, too. And that is my point: "too." There were other coins. As coinage spread across the Mediterranean, it got more and more popular and if you could say that the Owl was MORE international and MORE widely used than darics and sigloi, then someone could say, "Wait, there was nothing to compare to the Roman imperial denarius, which was the first international widely used coinage." And so on. And you said: "Minting began in the 6th century BC and continued without debasement though various design evolutions for half a millennium..." Except for the mintiing of "copper Owls" the perhaps silverplated emergency coins of (arguably) 413-404, it is true that when they were made of silver, the Owls were nominally pure silver. That is true. However, there were gaps of decades between changes in style, the most dramatic of which is the New Style (so-called) whose dating is still not certain, but accepted beginng perhaps 150 or perhaps 120 BC. So, the point is that while silver Owls were silver, Owls were not continuously struck for half a millennium. And more to the point, given what a fouree is, the silver plated Owls were greatly debased. And as I contend, these emergency coins were copper Owls, a tremedous debasement of the currency. Those are the numismatic points. The agoric issues are more serious and might indeed halt one's rush to acquire. You said: "... I bought through eBay from a guy in Lebanon infamous for his misattributions, halting English, and occasionally really good buys." You might want to have this coin authenticated by ICG or David Sear or someone. It seems to me all too easy to sell fakes from overseas via eBay. You can handle enough Roman denarii or enough Athenian Owls even to have some confidence. How many Sabean Owls have you smelt? With machine tool technology today and the poverty in the middle east, I would hesitate to buy anything. David Hendin tells a famous story of being offered coins that he must buy right now because they were also being offered to David Hendin! The coins, of course, were fakes. Also, if you claim that you bought the coin for "one-tenth of its market value" then the phrase "market value" loses its meaning. Catalog value is one thing. Market value is another. What you paid for the coin _IS_ its market value, by definition. You can sell it for 10 or 30 or 100 times more than you paid for it, to be sure. At which point, that one coin has a different market value, which may affect the market values of other coins in its class and even of all other coins incrementally. But market value is by definition what you paid for the coin and what you have said is that this coin's market value is only one-tenth of its catalog value. Then, you seem to lose your sense of historical perspective: "But here's the really interesting part. Saba is referred to as Sheba in the Old Testament, as in the Queen of Sheba ..." But that was 930 BC and this coin is from 400 BC or later. (Do you have an attribution for the date?) So, that is like getting an English shilling from 1950 and talking about the War of the Roses. You close with: "This led to the Golden Age of U.S. coins and the Saint, Walker, Standing Liberty quarter, the three most classical, and beautiful, of U.S. coins." First of all, there is a question about the "most" classical of US coins, since ALL US Coins are "classical" (rather, neo-classical) by definition. Except for being debased now, you could take a Large Cent or a Lincoln Cent, a Seater, Barber, Mercury or Roosevelt Dime, a Kennedy or Franklin Half and so on and so on, to the street of ancient Rome and no one would bat an eyelash. "E Pluribus Unum... Liberty... United States..." Even "America" is a Latinized word. The guy on one side, the Eagle or Building with Columns, or Oak Leaves or Fasces or whatever, all US Coins are classical. And as for the Walking Libery Half, it is a direct adaptation of the French franc by Oscar Roty. I grant that Roty's "Semeuse" and Weinman's Walking Liberty have ancient precedents in coins of a walking goddess with something in her arms such as a cornucopia, or even the "angel with cross" or "Nike with Stylos" coins of Alexander. Again, your enthusiasm is untrammeled, I hope. But I also hope that you spend more time reading history books. You will enjoy your coins more.
My best buy came at the 1994 Spring Show of the Michigan State Numismatic Society. I was walking the aisles looking for ancient coins and I stopped at a table with medievals. "What are you looking for?" asked Gordon Andreas Singer. "Ancients," I said. He replied that that was pretty broad and I said that he had some nice coins but nothing in ancients and he asked me again what I was looking for. "Ionian silver," I replied. "Sometimes gold can be as cheap as silver," he said. He passed me a tooth filling. I mean, he passed me an archaic electrum hekte or one-sixth stater. The 2x2 said SAMOS, but when I tilted it, I could see the crouching lion of Miletos. We talked about the coin and its provenance, how he came to buy it, since it is outside his mainstream, and so one. He would not budge on the price, since it was about half of the usual retail for something like this. I bought the coin. Attributing it was a challenge. I place it as 600-550 BC, similar to SNG Von Aulock 1796 (Babelon 167; iv; 33v or BMC Ionia III,7 and about the closest was from the Rosen collection of the Getty Museum). Speaking at the Thomas Numismatic Center of Ashland University, I put the coin under a stereo microscope and was satisfied by the crystalization deep in the punches, and other features. I had found another coin similar for sale from a dealer, a paler electrum with a different incuse punch. I borrowed that coin and wrote both of them up for THE ANVIL, the quarterly of the Ancient and Medieval Numismatic Society of Canada. That article is listed in the ANS archives. For me, the coin's charm comes from being in the time and place of Thales of Miletos. Thales is called "the father of geometry" and was also a successful commodities speculator. This example is from very early in the development of coinage. So, all in all, this was a pretty good find. I divested all of my collection back in 1999, but this was a keeper.
Michael, you're quibbling muchly. Athenian Owls circulated much more widely than the coins you mentioned (and you left out Aigina Turtles as being a well known and popular international coin that preceeded Athenian Owls). You equated Owls with Athenian bronze coinage when the nickname "Owl" means Athenian Owl tetradrachms, by far the most commonly surviving denomination, which is clearly what I was talking about tetradrachms. You say that because Owls weren't struck every year for a half millenium they were't struck continuously. Of course there were gaps in mintage. There always are, with many early U.S. coins as well. The point is the same basic design -- portrait of helmeted Athena on obverse, owl on reverse -- and same weight and same metal purity persisted for about 500 years, an amazing run. As far as the market value goes, I was basing this on what other specimens have sold for. Market value isn't totally reinvented with each individual transaction! And finally, who would dispute that the Saint and Walker were more classical than the Lincoln cent and Buffalo nickel? You say that "all" U.S. coins are classical. The Buffalo nickel, by its mere inclusion of a Latin motto, doesn't become classical. Its design motifs, very American, as in native American, are anything but classical. Can I suggest you start collecting coins again, and looking at them?
Michael, that electrum hekte seems like a very good buy, and a very cool coin. I've been thinking about possibly adding a similar coin to my collection. They're among the very first coins and amazing in that regard. There's a gorgeous Lydian electrum third stater up on eBay right now (auction will be over soon): http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1380040228
Best U.S. coin buy: 1803 Bust dollar. I bought it raw on eBay on September 13th last year, two days after the September 11th terrorist attacks. Nobody was buying. Got it at one-third of its market value. Submitted it to PCGS and they put it in an EF-40 holder, as I had hoped. The seller was honorable in not cancelling his unreserved auction at the last minute because of the low bidding, which I suppose he could have done. He accepted my payment and sent me the coin. But some months later, through email, he offered me another Bust dollar, an ugly beat-up specimen, at an inflated price, no doubt to try to recoup his loss. Thanks, I said, but no thanks.
The Devil is in the Details. I agree with you agreeing with me that quibbling over details must not detract from the enjoyment of the hobby. At some arbitrary point, however, the facts become factors, and you have to ask yourself just WHAT you are collecting. I agree that from our perpective, the Owl is a long and honored series. I only pointed out that it was not struck continuously for 500 years. Some of the hiatuses and lacunas lasted a generation and most of the gaps ran for decades. Image having no new coins from 1960-2000. Yes, from 4000 AD, that gap might not be so plain, but think about what happened in Athens while no Owls were struck. You misunderstand me when you say that I "equated Owls with Athenian bronze coinage when the nickname "Owl" means Athenian Owl tetradrachms..." I was refering to the "Copper Owls" the debased, perhaps silverplated, emergency coinage of 413-404. You said the Owl was always pure silver. That is not quite true. Again, imagine the very real situation where no silver Five Francs were struck in France from 1919 to 1960. You could not say that the 5F was a time honored coin of .900 fine silver from the days of Napoleon to the Present. So, too, with the Owl. It was debased. It was replaced with copper coins of the same stamp, which may have been dressed up in silver plating. Owning one of those Copper Owls is not the same thing as owning a silver Tetradrachma. I agree -- and in fact, checking Sear, I was surprised pleasantly: the had they same weight (and same metal purity, of course) for most of their 500 year run. Except for the emergency, and except for changes in style, it was pretty much the same coin, just as the $5 Gold US Half Eagle was pretty much the same coin from 1796 to 1908. You said: "The Buffalo nickel, by its mere inclusion of a Latin motto, doesn't become classical. Its design motifs, very American, as in native American, are anything but classical." The STYLE of a coin is not determined by the Title of its Subject. In other words, if you think the Buffalo Nickel is "native American" style then I invite you to come to Albuquerque -- stop in Oklahoma on the way and listen to Native American radio while you are there. The Gallery Mint Museum, in fact, has a Buffalo Pattern that is in the "Roman" style. It is the same coin, believe me. That was his point in making the coin, to demonstrate that the Buffalo Nickel is a truly CLASSICAL design. Struck in Silver the Buffnick would pass on the streets of Rome by weight. Just about all coins would. HOWEVER, if you want to see some coins that would not, consider the 1999 DUTCH coins designed under the aegis of Her Majesty the Queen. Their modernism would have been a barrier even if they were GOLD. They are too unclassical to have been recognized as coins in Rome. Even farther from coindom are the modern "medals" that are really circuloidal sculptures, totally uncoinlike.
I have bought and sold alot of coins, but my best coin buy was a 1883 Liberty nickel with cents graded MS-60. I got it for the No Cents price. The dealer had it priced on the back and I asked him if that was the correct price. He said "yes, but I will knock off $2.00." I got it for $23.00 and resold it to another dealer for over a hundred. Not alot of profit, but pretty good on a coin that would never realise moe than a $5 profit. I gave the dealer a chance to check his prices and he messed up. Now, if it was 100's of dollars I would have pointed it out to him. Cameron Kiefer
My best coin buy is a Ag 1916 mercery dime that i paid $1.25. got it home looked at it under a glass and saw the faded d mintmark. sent it in got a AG-3 1916-D.
my best coin Hy, my best coin that I ever bought is the 5 LEI 1906 romanian coin The coin is made from silver (82,5%), at it is comemorative ( the 40th aniversary of the reign of king Carol I of Romania). 25 grames, 38 mm (diameter). You can see it at http//www.numismatica-rom.go.ro/1867-1914/Rom-1906-5Lei.jpg
