Leaving Gordian III in favor of diversity

I'm in agreement that you should hold off a bit before selling your GIII hoard, but I'll admit I'd be in for a good one from the Sallent Collection should you decide to part ways. It's a hard decision but I don't get the feeling you're in dire straights and hard up for the cash so I'd hang on to 'em.

 

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I feel you. 75% of my purchases this year have been stuff other than Ancient Chinese. It adds interest in otherwise monotony.

 

Whenever I feel the itch for something new, I go trolling to fill a few spots in my ancient Indian type collection. Lots of fun, fascinating coins that will set you back no more than a big mac meal!

 

Just last week I was admiring that Apollodotos I square AR drachm you sold a year ago. It has wonderful eye appeal. There's nothing wrong with changing your mind every few months-- there will always be new rabbit holes to explore. Whatever floats your boat .

 

I've always been a collector, and have accumulated and sold many types of collections over the years. When I was in my early 20s, this included parting with my first collection of (mostly) late Roman bronzes, which I had built painstakingly in my younger years on a limited budget (odd jobs, flipping burgers, you name it). It was decent collection, even by my current standards. I sold them to pay for a vacation to Europe, of all things. I didn't make top dollar on them, either.

I don't regret it.

The ancient coin collecting bug never left me, and after a hiatus, I came back to it. But I moved off into a completely different collecting and learning focus (Greece and the Roman republic, mostly).

Trips come and go, and so do objects. I read an interesting article once on the "endowment effect," the psychology principle whereby people ascribe more value to something simply because they own it. I found this to be true of my own collecting habits at times. As a proactive measure, the article suggested that if you're struggling with parting with an object, ask yourself "If I didn't own this thing, how much would I pay to have it?" If the answer is "not much," then ditch it and move on to something new.

 

I would consider it a major coup of collecting if I even saw one of the coins I sold in 1974. The group went to Joel Malter and never showed up in his listings. I wonder if they went to Europe and are still in a collection there. Some coins much nicer than any I had get sold and resold regularly as their owners try to cash out or change interests. I mentioned that I sold those 150 coins in 1974 and probably have sold another 150 since then as well as having given away another similar size bunch. The only ones I ever see are those that went here on Coin Talk through JAZ sales. I don't expect to see the junk grade coins resurface but I would be interested in seeing statistics on how often most ancient coins change hands before they settle down in a long term collection rather than being dealer stock or speculator fodder.

I think one of the real 'allures' of Greek coins is the fact that there is such a range of things available in every price range. When we say 'better' we might mean higher grade but if we go the other route and seek coins that are interesting even if they are small or bronze we can have quite a range of things collect. All Greek coins worth collecting are not tetradrachms or better. You can get Archaic through Roman era, tiny through massive, all metals and coins of places no one today even knows where was located. I'm currently in the middle of reading Paul Rynearson's book Collecting Ancient Greek Coins someone here recommended not long ago. In Chapter 4, he points out that the US has had eight mints but about a thousand cities produced ancient 'Greek' coins (some in what is today Greece but most spread wide across the world as they defined it). The timeline for 'Greek' was twice as long as the US so far. Denominations varied from place to place and time to time but are not small in number. He makes the great truth among true statements: "Remember that this collection is uniquely yours; it should be dictated by your personality." He was talking about Ancient Greek coins but many of us expand to include coins not so Ancient and not so Greek. It seems a wonder that our collections overlap as much as they do. I have not got to the point in the book that Paul Rynearson introduces the 25 types he considers 'significant'. Cutting that number down to 25 must have been hard.

 

Back in the 80s I was a graduate student and my wife was doing childcare to support us. Not a lot of income. I had earlier assembled a nice run of Roman Republican silver, and had enough material to do a display I called 7 centuries of Roman Silver. It started with the inception of the denarius and ended with a few siliquae. I had been encouraged by the director of the school library and a couple of professors to work it up as a public display, and worked on it for a few months to prepare an exhibition guidebook. Twenty some pages in mockup draft and a couple of hundred coins. But then they changed directors and his successor was a woman who adamantly refused to allow for such an exhibit. Remembering her father she considered collecting to be a male ego thing and not to be supported. She wouldn't even look at the historical guidebook I had prepared. I was duly deflated and demoralized.

About this time we hit a rough patch, incomewise, so I took the Roman Republican component of the exhibit and consigned it to CNG. All but a few pieces sold, and the bills got paid. I still have those few pieces and all my reference books, but to this day I have no heart for Roman Republican. Ironically, the replacement director had a nervous breakdown a couple of years later and was let go. She apologized for how she had treated me, but by then it was fait accompli. There were no more exhibits at the library by anyone after that.

 

Man, that's an awful story. I'm sorry that your hard work was so callously disrespected.

 

That’s one of the reasons why I abandoned US coins: it was too constricting. There are only about a dozen issues of US coins that I would be interested in buying at prices I am willing to pay (ignoring the rare “steals”). Go to ancient/medieval, and that number becomes thousands.

 

The lousy evening weather this summer in Florida was enough to push me towards wanting the flexibility that solar astronomy provides...

My new Coronado PST H-Alpha solar telescope



And the second etalon filter to complete the double stack



I'm hoping to do first light on both the single stack and double stack combo tomorrow if the weather allows for it. I'll let you know how the Coronado PST performs during its first solar observations.

 

I for one, have never sold a coin from my collection! I love them all too much, even to part with a single one. So, I would hang on to your Gordian III examples. Whenever, I get short on funds, I either work excess hours/ or sell some more bugs I once contemplated selling my 80 or so modern Proof gold sets/ coins, to put into older classical issues, but I could not do it....same goes for my banknote collection.
John

 

Could you recommend some? I've been dipping my toes lately..

 

@Sallent , it sounds like you are able to expand even without selling the Gordian IIIs. I recommend you keep them except for any you really don't like. You are likely to be disappointed with how much money you get for them and you run the risk of wishing you hadn't sold them. We know you once thought they were neat; you may well again.

 

I am not in a position to give advice on ancient coin collecting - however I think this situation is similar to many other things in life... some can let go .. some can't.
And that is fine - I don't think there is a right or wrong way.

For me I would keep a couple of coins that remind me of that part of my life and then move on. Moving forward is the best way for me.

While I say that - my eldest daughter had this t-shirt with a "Canada Dry" ginger ale logo on it when she was really young... a silly, cheap t-shirt. She loved it and wore it all the time.. then my younger daughter started wearing it. They are older now.. but when I think of my kids as they were then I always see that t-shirt.

We have donated all of the old clothes (and I was happy to do it) but I have that t-shirt hidden in a drawer in my garage. My wife doesn't even know I still have it.

I don't look at it and never pull it out. But I like to know it's there.

I am sure you will make the best decision for you.....

**and that first little girl who wore that t-shirt? ...she is in University now studying to be a lawyer.. life is funny - and it's great!!!

 

When I contemplate whether or not I want to sell a coin, I ask myself how easy it would be to replace if I sold it and later regretted it. If the answer is “very hard”, then I do not sell. If the answer is “easy”, then I sell.

 

Ok, so I finally reached a decision. I'm going to keep 12 Gordian III coins that I like the most, and only sell 6 off which I frankly can live without, and put the proceeds towards another Roman Republic era coin.

I think 12 Gordies are enough to appreciate this emperor, so this is a nice compromise between my earlier plan to sell all but 2 to 3, and not selling any.

So look for some Gordie deals in the sale forum of Cointalk in the next few days.

 

Great @Sallent - you still will have quite a few Gordie's to admire...

 

Sell all but one, if you can...12 Gordies is just too much

 

I disagree. One can never have too many ancient coins!!!!!