Baltimore show review: Phoenicians sink my budget, and bargain boxes rule

I had an inauspicious start to my show day. I had some last-minute dental work (filling a cavity) at 9 AM, so when I arrived at the show at 11 AM half my mouth was still numb. I then ended up spending over half my show budget at the first table I stopped at, but I don't really regret it. At that table (Del Parker, who I hadn't dealt with before) I bought a silver stater of Arados in Phoenicia. It's a quality coin (see photo below) with a CNG pedigree, and I don't know when I'll find another that I like as much, so I snapped it up. I spent until about 1 PM on the bourse, then went to the lobby for a quick lunch, then some more bourse time before leaving at around 3 PM. I probably would have stayed a bit longer, but my money had run out. Some random observations:

-Had a good conversation with Brian Kritt about the history of Carrhae and about his work on Seleucid and early Parthian chronology. I ended up buying his book "New Discoveries in Bactrian Numismatics", which he autographed for me. Still haven't bought any coins from him, but he recognized me from previous shows, and I will certainly keep him in mind in the future.

-I was impressed at how even the big-name dealers were willing to take time to talk individually with me, even when I ended up buying little or nothing from them. Harlan J. Berk spent some time with me going through his junk box, commenting on various coins as I went along. Shanna Schmidt was very friendly, and when I put away the $1,500 Ephesus stater I was examining with the explanation "I can either buy this coin, or pay my rent this month" she interjected "Pay your rent first!" and made sure to give me her business card. I remember this sort of customer service, and will be sure to visit these dealers at future shows.

-Overall attendance seems pretty good, with customers present at most tables in the morning/early afternoon, and a bit fewer later. Allen Berman said he was having a good show, as proved by how disorganized his space had become.

-I saw someone in the crowd who I'm 99% sure was @Ed Snible. I almost called out his name, just to be sure, but decided not to.

I took some quick pictures of all my coins from today; better pictures and full descriptions will follow for some. First, my main ancients: Sasanian drachm of Khusro II, the Arados stater, a small Parthian bronze with caduceus reverse, and a bronze of Khusro II from when the Sasanians briefly captured Alexandria:

Some cheaper ancients: two $22 junk box finds from Harlan J. Berk (an Indian punch mark coin that I will have fun identifying, and a Roman Republican denarius featuring Marsyas) and two $25 coins from The Time Machine (drachm of Bukhara c. 775-785 with very abstracted Sasanian-inspired design, and square drachm of the Indo-Greek Philoxenos, who I recently posted a bronze of):

Modern coins and tokens. A US Hard Times Token of 1837 with political designs and inscriptions, a 1938 German 5 marks featuring Paul von Hindenburg, and an early Soviet Union coin featuring a heroic proletarian blacksmith:

Some miscellaneous world coins that were just $1 each:

And some even more miscellaneous world coins and tokens at $2 each:

Hope you enjoyed my little recap. I'd love to hear other CoinTalkers' experiences at the Baltimore show this weekend.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Good stuff

 

Some great coins, you've done well. particularly like the Arados stater.

 

Thanks for the show report, I always love to live vicariously through other's adventures. Looks like you scored a great selection of coins. I love the Arrados, great portrait and galley, which usually one or the other is cut off.

Nice group of World coins too. World coins have so much variety and history.

John

 

I skipped Baltimore this time. My favorite dealer was sick and not there this time and the others I usually buy from had been at other shows I attended recently. However, I am full of opinions.

I really wish I had bought more coins over the years from Brian Kritt. He has excellent taste and I never feel buyer's regret with purchases from him after I get over the prices.

The food prices in the lobby are ridiculous. I never eat while there and buy another coin or ten in the time saved.

Dealers have more to gain by making long term customers than sending you to the poor farm or divorce court over one sale. Over the years I have met a few real jerks in the business. Most of them seem to disappear after a very short time. There are several dealers still working from whom I first bought a coin 30+ years ago. The early-retirement plan for coin dealers is not good so many of my favorites are older than I am.

I love your Arados. The oval flan got most of the good parts. I liked min but you got waves.

 

What a cool mix of stuff!

Hey, what's that turtle with a box on it's back thing from 1837? Would that be a "hard times" token? I'd like to get one of those.

I love that little AE Parthian with a caduceus and the stater, and cool punkmark Mauryan Bukhara filre altar!

Here's mine!



Arab Bukhara, Abassid Caliph Al-Mahdi, 775-785 AD. Billon drachm.

O: Bust right, Arabic legend behind (Al-Madhi), Sogdian legend before. R: Fire altar, head right. 26 mm, 2.5 g

 

Nice writeup and all nice coins!

 

Great report! I've met Del Parker a couple of times and he seems to be a swell guy. Deals mostly in Irish coins, but has always had some interesting ancients. A month or so ago I fondled both a nice Balbinus and Pupienus sesterce he had but alas they were a bit out of my price range.

Glad you had a good afternoon even though the day didn't start out great.

 

Thanks for that report... I really enjoy reading these from those of you lucky enough to go to shows.

That Arados is excellent. When I bought this one a few months ago, I sacrificed a fair bit of the head for a full galley.

 

Sweet, sweet Arados!! Totally jealous.

Harlan Berk has a junk box?!? No way!

 

Of course, everything in it cost $1000...

 

Haven't been able to go to the show for a couple years. When I did go, I left the place, walked to Five Guys, enjoyed a big meal and returned. Well worth it if you're young and spry.

 

I enjoyed your report and coins,thanks for sharing! Looking forward to future write ups.

 

I was there yesterday too - I should have said something earlier and we could have said hello. My favorite of the bunch is the Arados stater, what a great find! I'll file my report in another thread when I get a chance.

 

I enjoyed the report and coins as well!!

 

Thanks for the nice report on the Baltimore expo @Parthicus I had intended to go as I live about 25 minutes away, but couldn't play hooky from work/the wife.

The folks at Harlan J Berk have always impressed me with their willingness to talk with anyone, regardless of the budget of the buyer.

 

I have bought from them several times and have never been disappointed. The service they offer is very good.

 

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Glad to hear that everyone else likes my Arados stater. I'm sure it will make my year-end Top 10 list.

Food prices in the lobby are indeed high, but the crab cake sandwich is actually pretty tasty. (Crabs are a Baltimore specialty, after all.) I would have skipped lunch, but I had foolishly gone without breakfast and then couldn't eat for a couple of hours after my dental procedure, so I had to eat something.

Yes, it is indeed a Hard Times Token, part of the large series of tokens issued after the financial crisis of 1837. This one is political, making fun of Andrew Jackson for his role in the crisis. This specimen was only $18 in the stock tray of a token dealer. There are other types, including the famous anti-slavery designs "Am I not a man and a brother/ Am I not a woman and a sister" and a type showing Andrew Jackson popping out of a box like a Jack-in-the-Box. Guess I need to start another sub-collection...

 

I went easy on the purchases to prepare for some auctions later this month.

I came home with a 1604 Lion Daaldar and a Himyarite coin, both from Ephesus Numismatics. Although the Himyarite coin bust is in poor style it has a full inscription and the grade seemed very high. When I got back to the hotel I found a previous auction appearance where it was described as near mint state. Here is the auction photo:


IMYARITES. ‘Amdan Bayyin Yanuf, 2nd century AD. AR Scyphate Quinarius (1.16 gm) of Raidan mint. 13mm
Obv: Male head right, within torc
Rev: Himyarite/Sabatean legend ? "ʿMDN 1 BYN" "RYDN"; Small male head, monogram to left, scepter symbol (or monogram?) to right.
Ref: Sear, GIC 5717. Munro-Hay 3.2ai.
ex-Pegasi Numismatics, Auction XXXIV, May 2016, lot 243 (unsold)

This is my first Arabian coin although I have been curious for a while. I don't know if you are going to be able to see the Himyarite inscription text above. I am on Mac OSX 10.12 which includes a font for the South Arabian script used on these coins! I have not found any web sites on these coins that includes the inscriptions. I figured out how to enter them using Munro-Hay's article “The coinage of Shabwa (Hadhramawt), and othe ancient south arabian coinage in the national museum, Aden” [free at http://www.persee.fr/doc/syria_0039-7946_1991_num_68_1_7224 ] and Wikipedia's page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_South_Arabian_script

Using the Wikipedia page I was actually able to read the mint name, RYDN, and the ruler's name MDN BYN. There were two characters that didn't make sense, a vertical bar that look like South Arabian 1 and a ] that was not in the Unicode standard nor explained in the article I looked at.

I almost bought a Sasanian bronze brockage. (I actually thought it was Arab Sasanian but Steve Album had it as Sasanian). I didn't even know such things existed. It was not unreasonably priced, but it belongs in a specialist's collection rather than mine.

Update The South Arabian text can't be entered into BBCode forums, it seems. The HTML for what I was trying to show is 𐩲?𐩵𐩬𐩽𐩨𐩺𐩬 ʿMDN 1 BYN 𐩧𐩺𐩵𐩬 RYDN

 

I am very jealous of that RR denarius with Marsyas (especially for that price). Nice find!