I just purchased my first ancient coin

Ugh! I was thinking that I paid about a 1/4 of the prices I saw for similar (I think similar) coins on another site.

 

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the woman on the back is actually the Tyche of the city, which is why she is turreted, and she represents the destiny of the city; which the Emperor is restoring, hence the reverse legend REPARATIO REIPVB -- Restoration of the Republic

 

Wonderful - and it will be fun to learn more and more about how to decipher the coins! Thank you.

 

Well, when it comes to coins of this era, @Victor_Clark is your man! Check out his web pages and his Vcoins store. There are several other collectors and dealers on this site who you might want to take note of

 

Thank you again at @TIF and @Victor_Clark. I am okay with having overpaid for the first coins I purchased - as long as they are authentic. If they turned out not to be genuine, I would not purchase more and I wanted to continue collecting. I don't know if that makes sense; but, that was my thinking.

 

Yeah, so you overpaid. It happens, especially during the wild enthusiasm of a new and awesome hobby. If buying these didn't stress your budget, no harm done. You have a couple of authentic coins, you have the bug, and hopefully you'll start reading and bookmarking resources so that you'll do better next time .

 

As @dougsmit pointed out in another post, I am sure MANY of us probably paid too much for our first coin(sss). I know I did! Nothing wrong with that. Rather, I LEARNED from it and decided what was a fair price to ME for buying MY coins! Enjoy the Hobby, and if you FEEL that you overpaid, I personally consider it the investment premium of studying and learning your hobby.
Best,
Brian

 

@LaCointessa: I will be honest with my opinion. The coins you purchased from Zlobin are so plentiful in this condition they are not worth much. You would have been better off buying an uncleaned lot. At least you would have had the fun of discovery and still ended up with coins similar to what you purchased (BTW I do not do unclean lots for that very reason). I believe for the money you spent you can do much better. Listen to what other posters are telling you and ask questions. Some here will point you in the right direction for your next purchase.

TIF is absolutely correct. You have a couple of authentic coins and the bug to collect more. The Dark Side is drawing you in - and you will be happy for it.

 

I've underpaid on many coins, paid market price on many coins, and yes, I've overpaid for some coins. It happens. In at least two occasions I've been burned enough that I paid at least 40% more than market price. Those were huge learning experiences.

You can compensate for that by underpaying on your next coin, like the one I PMd you, or another coin out there.

If you send me a PM next time you want a coin, I'll be happy to look at them with you and advise you on things such as the seller's reputation, the asking price, condition of the coin, etc. I'll even help you search for the best example at the best price.

 

@Sallent - That is so kind and generous of you. I would enjoy that!

 

Oh! My goodness - VCoins is Victor Clark's place? Geeee whiz. That's a great site. I was on there last night looking for my coins!

 

Vcoins is a marketplace with 152 dealers, each with their own virtual stores under the Vcoins umbrella. Victor is one of those dealers. CoinTalk's Ken Dorney is another. There may be other CoinTalk members who are also Vcoins dealers.

 

@LaCointessa Here is another tip. Some Vcoins dealers also have their own separate websites, and you can buy the same coin through there at a lower price, as the dealer is not having to pay Vcoins for the sale. For example, a $50 coin on vcoins might be a $42 coin on the dealer's personal site.

 

Yes, @TIF

 

Late Roman mints each played by their own rules when it comes to mint marks and they changed the rules often. You just have to learn the language. Here we have two mints that used similar systems. SM abbreviates Sacra Moneta or sacred money which I like to think of as a reminder that you should not commit the sacrilege of counterfeiting. AQ abbreviates Aquileia while TES is Thessalonika, the town names. The P after SMAQ refers to PRIMA of 'first' which is the workshop within the mint that made the coin. If you look you will find identical coins with SMAQS where S = secunda. Not all mints used these ordinal numbers but it is one of the options.
A good place to learn about this late period is CT member Valentinian's site.
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/ricix/
Start with the photos of the reverses a little ways down the page and find a match for the coin you are seeking. Click on it to go to his pages telling more about the options for that type (which rulers and which mints used it).

We each have our favorites in ancient coins. Valentinian is 1000 times as interested in coins of Valentinian as I am. When you figure out what your next step will be, we will guide you to where to learn more about them. Please take that next step with someone with a grasp on reality when it comes to prices. TIF mentioned Victor. We also have Ken Dorney who has a vCoins store and John Anthony who sells coins using a private conversation list here on Coin Talk. Valentinian also sells using the Coin Talk sales pages and his own web site. You can contact any of them for details if interested. What you really need to do is decide in which direction you will go next. From where you started, 'better' will not be difficult. I will say, however, that your first seller knows a lot about coins and I have not seen him selling fakes. Our problem with him is telling people that a $10 coin is $1000 marked down to only $100. Like you say, that is 1000% better than the ones who sell fakes worth nothing at the same prices.

Ask. If you don't want to ask publicly do a conversation with someone who might know. TIF and Valentinian are both great people with whom I correspond regularly but on different subjects. Pay attention to who has posted on coins you find interesting and bother them. A few will ignore you. Most here are rather user friendly.

 

Actually, @Bing I was thinking that I would like to see about an uncleaned lot especially after I saw how some coins can clean up! And I am sure I would enjoy working on them and then identifying them. Sounds like BIG Fun to me! You were reading my mind, huh?

And, thank you for your honest opinion. All of you. It is sincerely appreciated!

 

@LaCointessa PM me your address. I have one or two LRBs that I got as freebies that I can send you, and they are in better condition.

I don't remember the rulers' names now, but I can send you that info when I get home.

 

@dougsmit - Sage advice and I will follow it. Is this a good time to share the ancients I purchased for 7 bucks or less? After that first purchase, looking around more and comparing (as best I could), I grabbed a few ancients priced so low that I think they can not be real; but, now? i don't know.

So, if this guy's coins are over priced, why wouldn't he take them back? Is buying ancients like buying underpants?

I just checked the terms. I can return them and get my moolah back. I've successfully purchased authentic coins but there is no need for me to overpay, is there? I could get one of them thar hoards of crusty uncleaned coins and a vat of that cleaner stuff and take my ancients and jump in!

Ya' think?

 

Oh! Still, cool!

Gosh, thank you. Now, I'll go figure out how to start a PM.

 

Yah, scoring yourself an uncleaned lot would probably be your second poor decision ... I would spend the next week or so surfing the thousands of threads available here on CoinTalk and get your bearings.

It's not hard ...

a) take a peek at the 1000's of previous threads
b) buy from CNG, Vcoins, or "reputable" dealers
c) post your "non-auction" coin-targets and ask what the CT-crowd thinks "before" you pull the trigger (yah, "never" post a live auction coin because the members here might be bidding on it and that would draw attention to it and you'd be shunned for side-swiping their chances of scoring such coin)
d) ask/PM one, or a few of the members that seem smart and ask before you purchase
e) have super cool taste in coins
f) have fun ... you seem like a good sh ... person