Tried my first auction with Leu Numismatik

well since being introduced to Biddr recently I decided to try a few of the auctions. I bid on several coins. They start out in a pre bid phase which ends and starts a live bid phase. The only problem I have with this is biddr and LN don't sync their bids so you really don't know what you won until they send you the invoice or email them. I had a one the hammer price wasn't updated correctly I had lost even though it was still in my bid radius. All in all it was a great experience as I had only dealt with Heritage, Romannumismatic and Ebay before.

I was able to get three pieces.

First: I really liked the design of this one.

LYDIA. Hierocaesaraea. Pseudo-autonomous issue. Hemiassarion (Bronze, 16 mm, 2.52 g, 1 h), time of Trajan to Hadrian, 98-138. Draped bust of Artemis to right, with bow and arrow in front and quiver in the back. Rev. ΙЄΡΟΚΑΙCΑΡЄΩΝ Forepart stag to right. BMC 10. RPC III 1863. SNG von Aulock 2955.



Second: This had very nice details and color.

Diocletian, 284-305. Antoninianus (Billon, 21 mm, 4.30 g, 12 h), Lugdunum, 285-286. IMP C C VAL DIOCLETIANVS P F AVG Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust of Diocletian to right, seen from behind. Rev. IOVI CONSERVAT / B Jupiter standing left, holding thunderbolt in his right hand and long scepter in his left. Bastien 18. Cohen 215. RIC 41. Nicely silvered. Extremely fine

Last: This was a Near Mint piece I really liked and by the bidding so did many others.

Elagabalus, 218-222. Denarius (Silver, 19 mm, 3.72 g, 7 h), Rome. IMP CAES M AVR ANTONINVS AVG Laureate and draped bust of Elagabalus to right. Rev. VICTOR•ANTONINI AVG Victory advancing right, holding wreath in her right hand and palm frond over her left shoulder. BMC 37. Cohen 291. RIC 156. A beautiful example.



Did anyone else get anything from them please feel free to share and the thoughts on their system.

 

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Darn, those are three stunning coins. All winners. I will say this, that's one of the most unusual Elagabalus portraits I've seen. Doesn't look much like him, but it's still extremely well done and I'm fascinated by that style.

Here is my more traditional Elagabalus portrait which I've owned for almost 2 years now.

 

kool!..i'm with @Sallent on Elag and the others nice!

 

Three great coins, congrats! That Lydia bronze is incredibly appealing, and the Elagabalus portrait is fantastic. Nice reverse type too, limited to him.

I think with Leu it is better to register directly at leunumismatik.com and bid there. That way you get immediate updates on where the bidding is. (Their auctions are timed, just like CNG's.)

I was super excited that they were offering a huge collection of 3rd century middle bronzes ("the GG collection"). I am after a type set of Sev Alex middle bronzes (and Mamaea and Orbiana), plus at least one from each earlier and later emperor in that century. These are not that easy to come by! I picked up a few in the sale. (Probably too many... )

My favourite and the one I most wanted is this one, which is very rare and was issued upon Sev Alex being proclaimed emperor & giving his first donative:



I also picked up an Elagabalus issued around the same time as your denarius. It's hard to find 3rd c. middle bronzes of this quality. The type is also very rare:



... plus a number of others. It was a great sale for me!

 

I like Leu. I also just bid on their site even though I see the updates through biddr as well so I will scroll through the auction there as well. Good customer service and nice pieces at a fraction of prices elsewhere.

 

Hmmm... well, I can't agree with that, I find the bidding gets quite high at Leu for the most part. Cheaper than VCoins to be sure, but fairly expensive for an auction house IMO.

 

That's a beautiful coin too. I see that one has a beard mine doesnt

 

I thought the prices for most things went high as well That nice one was at my bid limit.

 

Nice trio of pickups. The Elagabalus is especially nice. I concur with Sev about bidding directly through the Leu website, and also about the prices. There'll typically be some deals to be had in any given auction, but as I recall it the new Leu's very first auction back in June last year had an unusual number. This time around, not so much.

I shared one of the three Domna bronzes I picked up in another thread the other day. Here's another one of them.


Julia Domna, Augusta, 193-217. As (Copper, 25 mm, 10.16 g, 12 h), Rome, 196-211. IVLIA AVGVSTA Draped bust of Julia Domna to right. Rev. MATER CASTRORVM / S C Julia, diademed and veiled, standing front, head to left, sacrificing out of patera over altar with her right hand and holding long caduceus with her left; before her, three standards. BMC 789. Cohen 121. RIC 881. Very rare. Minor deposits, otherwise, nearly very fine.
From the G.G. Collection of Roman Imperial third century middle bronzes and from the collection of Friedinger-Pranter, privately acquired from Oberstleutnant Voetter on 29 January 1913 for 6 crowns.

 

Lovely coins -- particularly the Artemis from Hierocaesaraea. The biddr platform is great for many auctions, such as Numismatik Naumann, Savoca, Kairos, and others. Unfortunately, it doesn't interface well with Leu and, with them, it's best to just register directly on their site. Other auction houses use their own system, such as Roma and CNG. Pegasi and Agora use the Agora platform. In time, this will all become second nature to you.

My budget didn't allow me to bid competitively on the lots I wanted, so I put all my effort into one lot, this one:


Which I obtained successfully.

 

I love Biddr but for Leu it is better to bid directly on their website for the reason demonstrated by brittania40.

Unfortunately I did not win any of my targets in the last Leu auction (or Naville, which was the same day).

 

Generally, I prefer to bid on an auction company's website rather than a third party platform. I like the more direct bidding route, which hopefully lessens the chances for confusion.

 

Nice picks-up all and @britannia40 that's a great Elagabalus.

 

I agree with @David Atherton in that the direct bidding is better and less chance for missing out on a coin because the two websites aren’t synced properly.

@Severus Alexander Well, I could have just been lucky too and found some coins I wanted and were passed over by most. I don’t discount that.

I have received Leu’s printed catalogs before. They are quite nice.

I use most of the bidding services and several direct websites. I like Naville but like all of the European houses the shipping and exchange rates kill me. Naville especially so because the lots are in Pounds. I’ve also had some luck with Roma but again denominated in Pounds. More importantly to the functionality of ROMA is their lack of a “watchlist” function. It makes me a little nuts to keep having to look at all of the lots again because I have no way of remembering what I looked at and did not look at. I spoke with a person from there and they said they thought a watchlist didn’t help their business. I strongly disagree.

 

The Hierocaesaria piece was for me one of the best coins in the auction and (bummer) I lost it to you! I had little time as I had a coin show to attend and only left a few bids and could not check on them. I should have bid double. At least it went to a fellow member here!

As everyone has already pointed out, auction houses who maintain their own site along with Biddr, Sixbid, etc., you should always bid directly from their site. Many dealers however run exclusively on Biddr and nowhere else. That is when it works best.

 

I decided it was time to finally add a Julia Titi denarius, and since Leu had a couple budget versions I decided to try for one. But since I was not able to cover the online bidding, I placed a bid the day before not expecting anything. Surprise, I got this one, about which I started a thread here about cleaning silver. It will take some work, but I think I can get an acceptable coin out of this:


The final price was not great, since I have seen a few nicer examples for less. But if it cleans up I will be satisfied.

 

Uhm, hate to break it to you, but that's Domitian in a wig. I think the guy liked drag, but since ancient peoples were not as open minded as us, he invented Domitia as an excuse to get away with drag. I mean, look at the bust...that definitely looks like Domitian.

 

I'd always heard that it was Titus in a wig but that Vespasian would stand-in on occasion.

 

I think the lettering is great! It's nice and sharp.

 

Very nice pick ups all!

I had a few middling bids in this auction, but only ended up winning one medium sized lot of Romans, but at a very reasonable price for the scarcer issues (Saloninus, Eudoxia, Milvian bridge commem, and either Quietus or Macrianus). I REALLY wanted either that Titi denarius or one of the two Pulcheria tremisses, but the budget disagreed with me

Leu is a great source for getting bargain prices on rarer problem coins, and the Greek coins in their lots are top notch, although I got burned big time on some of the Roman lots.