I dont collect ancients but this one caught my eye. I took too much time researching it to buy it. Im just curious if this was a fair price that it sold for? Seems like it had a 50% premium over melt but I still really enjoyed looking at it!
Its actually gold. Like I said I dont know much about ancients so I am not sure about premiums or anything really about ancients. I simply liked this one and it might have been a first for me.
While I am certainly no expert, that is not a gold stater of Alexander III. Staters of his usually have a helmeted head of Athena on the obverse and Nike on the reverse. They also sell for a lot more than $485. An example is below. The coin you posted is a silver tetradrachm. The seller is either a fool our a crook, and given that it was on ebay I tend to think the latter.
It is a fake Alexander drachm, but the real coins were made of silver not gold.. Here is my real Tetradrachm (Cheaper than the fake) Postumus Alexander struck under Seleukos I Nikator. Babylon mint 311-300 BC,
Yeah, spot price has nothing to do with the value of ancients (except for common/damaged solidi and the like). That’s the deifference between commodities like modern coins and historical collectibles like ancient coins.
Welcome to cointalk! We can help you learn about ancients. They are an awesome area to collect. So much history. There was a thread recently with advice and resources for new collectors. .. John