Antinous - opinions please

I am curious about the world of high – dollar ancient coin purchases-- a world I'm fairly confident I will have to gaze into from the outside. So am I to understand that there is a network of agents who essentially scout for coins on behalf of well-heeled collectors? Do they charge a flat fee or, like an auction house, take a percentage of the purchase price? No specifics, please. I'm just curious about the general process. Is the process as organized as I have just described?

 

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Yes, particularly in the auction environment where agents, typically for a percentage of the hammer price, will inspect lots and bid on the auction floor. I've not heard of agents for retail purchases, but I suppose something could be arranged.

 

In my case, I work exclusively with one dealer who travels to most of the auctions at which I bid, and examines coins in person on my behalf. If the coin meets his approval, he will place bids for me up to the amount that we agreed. I pay him a commission on each purchase, and the commission changes depending on whether or not the auction house "participates" with dealers (I take this as meaning whether or not he gets part of the fees collected by the auction house). He delivers the coins to me, usually (but not always) via Fed Ex, at whatever those costs (including insurance) are. For the coins that I buy, the delivery costs can be as much as $400 - $500.

In the event that he cannot be present at an auction, he will contact other dealers to view the coins on his behalf and they'll receive a portion of the fee that I pay.

Occasionally I purchase coins directly from him that he's found and purchased from other dealers or collectors. These prices are negotiated on a per-coin basis.

A few times I've also had my dealer purchase coins from a VCoins dealer or CNG's retail offerings. In those cases, I may pay him his fee (if the dealer doesn't want to sell to my dealer at a discount), or he will negotiate his fee with the other dealer and I pay either the asking price or a lower price that he's negotiated for the coin.

Hope that helps.

 

Yes it does.

Yikes! This is a different world indeed. Fortunately, this hobby offers something for everyone.

 

Hi Greg, the redness is encrustation and not corrosion. It looks like a very nice coin and as someone mentioned in an earlier post you could have the coin professionally cleaned (mechanical cleaning) if you wanted to risk it because underneath that corrosion is possibly great metal HOWEVER that is a risk that most people do not want to take. Most are very happy with an original patina which this clearly has. I will say that I support having an expert eye look at the piece because bronzes are incredibly difficult to buy over the internet. You might ask the seller to send you additional photos from an iphone from different perspectives and have someone help you to decide whether the coin is good or not. I do know this dealer and they are okay in my opinion. I'm a dealer myself so feel free to reach out if you have further questions. I'm happy to answer them and assist in any way. Warmly, Shanna Schmidt

 

Sorry....I meant to say under the encrustation and not corrosion!

 

@Greg Heinrich, from the two fake examples shown, and although I'm far from a connoisseur in this specific field, I would be more than suspicious !
Shick being reliable doesn't prevent him from having the occasionnal fake in his stock

Q

 

The Israeli dealer I have the most experience with is L Alexander Wolfe and he is a good dealer in my book.

I don't know much about Shick but as far as Zurqieh is concerned I will leave you with the two following links and let you draw your own conclusions.

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/from-a-to-z-and-orange-to-yellow.290945/

http://www.ancients.info/forums/archive/index.php?t-643.html

I have also noticed that purchases from Israel have been taking a long time to arrive lately (or in my case never arrive). I offered to pay the difference in upgraded shipping on my last order and that seemed to do the trick. The item arrived fairly quickly.

 

Thank you all for some really great advice!

 

Damn, that CT thread you link to is hilarious! And your point in well taken.

 

L. Alexander Wolfe is my favorite dealer! Most of my collection came from them.

 

Just revisiting this - because I am considering the coin still & bringing in some more expertise ... I'm not really seeing what you mean by the "beaded indentation" between the IC. Could you please elaborate?

 

If you did not read the entirity of the second link Curtisimo posted above, you should. There are a lot of reasons there why some of us prefer to stay on the porch and not pretend we are a Big Dog. As far as I am concerned the question here was settled to my satisfaction when the post below was offered on page one of this thread. You each can believe what you wish and trust who you trust. This time around we are not talking about a dealer adding false patinas to genuine coins.

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/displayimage.php?pos=-4786

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/displayimage.php?pos=-18518
In addition to the one David posted, we have the two above.

 

The dies are modern. What else is there to say?

 

I'm convinced - because of the consensus from fellow Cointalkers whose opinions I respect. I just can't see it for myself though. I guess I need to learn more about identifying die matches.

 

I just recently spotted my first a few months ago. The responses in this thread helped me with tips. Some digitally superimpose transparent images to check for matches. Others just use a trained eye.

It helps me to look for idiosyncrasies shared by the two coins, but perhaps that is stating the obvious.

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/is-this-caracalla-provincial-a-die-match.292232/#post-2669106

 

Dang...I never fail to be amazed by the people here. You have saved me a bit of cash, but here you really saved @Greg Heinrich BIG BUCKS!!!

 

I'm also available for representation if anyone needs it. Ed has good experience but he won't handle all types of coins (he tries to stick with just pedigreed examples). Additionally, he charges on top of the buyer's premiums so it can end up being very expensive (many times my services cost nothing because of a dealer discount that some auction houses give). Ed and I are good friends so I don't want to persuade people not to contact him because he is a good dealer. Just want to make sure that folks know that I am here. I also happen to be one of a few women dealers out there in the coin world (ancients) so I need to yell a little louder sometimes
www.shannaschmidt.com is my site if anyone wants to see what I am about.
Thanks,Shanna

 

I'm very glad I have the advice of CT! I know what I like, and what I need for my collection... but the really deceptive fakes still challenge me. I'll move on from this particular Antinous - I guess it wasn't meant to be. Btw if you see a good Antinous (medallion or drachm) let me know! It's next on my hit list!

 

I'm going to use the digital super-imposition method from now on. It's the best way I can see it!