BCD coins - What's included?

Thank you very much for joining here!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

John is right about his comments trying to explain what Basil has just shown us as the answer for this example. Back in those days we dealers would shoot our pictures on either 35mm or Polaroid, a laborious process, and after the half tones were made the photo was usually included in the flip with the coin and given to the purchaser. I still see these every now and then from older collections but mostly the photos dont survive. It was indeed expensive. The Polaroid process was not the point and click method we all remember, but involved specific lighting, angles and exposure (with a Lepzik (spelling?) box camera). Due to the expense and getting exposures right, Doug is right, most of us would do 'gang' photos, with as many coins in one picture as possible

 

With tech changing so fast now, imagine if 3d printers were to make their way more into the coin world.

I could see a 3d printed coin being done and have the original housed in a slab. That will take care of "our excuse" as ancient collectors to now embrace the slab world and still have us "examine" the coin, 3d printed mind you.

Would make fakes easier to be made though, especially once home 3d printers are mainstream.

 

Thank you for joining and clarifying. I'm sure most of us are honored at such a presence from the numismatic world. I'm sure you'll be able to sort out several questions in future.

 

Welcome. I hope to see you around this corner of the world more often.

 

Maybe!

Basil, do you remember the first time we met? Tom introduced us in London, though I remember sending you coin lists for years before that. Those were good times. Tom was a great guy, and I miss him dearly. While London is not the place to 'be' anymore, maybe our paths may cross once more. One never knows!

 

@ab initio welcome to the forum, it would be wonderful if you would make an appearance now and again and share your expertise

 

I sure remember Tom and many other people who are not involved with ancient coins any more. It seems that this hobby has a habit of weeding out nice guys (I am not suggesting that the ones left behind are not nice). The 60's, 70's and 80's were busy times for any collector who wanted to keep up with the market. I have a cupboard full of "retired correspondence" and sometimes I enjoy reading the exchanges of letters with dealers who are not dealing any more. These guys were always kind enough to send me their lists that now are real rarities and extremely valuable for research purposes. When a die study is undertaken there is no real distinction between a top quality NFA or Leu catalogue photo and a photo in an obscure list of a guy who was an ancient coin dealer for a small part of his active life just because he loved coins. And before someone can comment on how bad the quality of some of these photos were, let me say that the trained eye of a good numismatist will be able to recognize dies from low quality photos as easily as from high quality ones.

 

I just found this old thread about BCD tickets. Since I also have such a cryptic ticket, I add my question here.
It's not really important, but it would be nice to know who C.C. is, and if anyone knew by chance, I'd be grateful.

 

For whatever it is worth, CC was quite a character, an old fellow who dealt in ancient coins for as long as I knew him and who died at a very advanced age about ten years ago.

 

Dear ab initio, thank you very much for your reply. I was hoping for you to answer.

 

Here I was, wondering why Carlo Crippa (an Italian dealer) might have been selling coins for Swiss Francs!

 

During the 1950s, 60s and 70s I was serving in the United States Air Force and could only attend a very few coin shows. Most of my buying was at local coin shops or Department Stores such as Joske’s of Texas - the advantage was I got to examine the coins “in hand” before buying them. I specialized in bronzes (especially sestertii) of Augustus through Marcus Aurelius in those days - and Zander Klawan’s “Reading and Dating Roman Imperial Coins” was my constant companion during my coin dealings. I don’t think many present day collectors appreciate just how great a reference book it (still) is for beginning Roman Imperial coin collectors. Scholarly ancient coin reference books were hard to come by and very expensive in those days (it was difficult being a collector and researcher of Ancient coins on an NCO’s pay). Many small coin shop dealers (and also some mail order Dealers) did not provide reliable Coin attributions (no online resources to check or hardly any published Auction data, and most small dealers only had a “bare minimum” reference library) and so, being a precise attribution adherent, I used to lug around one or two (very heavy) volumes of BMCRE (British Museum Coins Roman Empire) with me during my coin shop prowls, especially during the 1950s and 1960s. Most of the local coins shops I frequented in those days dealt in primarily US coins - very few Ancients. All of the foregoing may explain why so many old dealers tags contain such sparse (or even inaccurate) attribution information which was not that easy to come by in those days.

But I am beginning to drift here and so I need to “cut to the chase”: eventually I started buying many of my Ancient coins from mail order Dealers. As others have pointed out, many of them sent out mimeographed lists that contained only brief coin descriptions and attribution information - no photographs. So you were literally “buying in the dark” and relying on the knowledge and integrity of the dealer (to accept returns and refund money in case of problems) - in my experience, I have found most ancient coin dealers to be very honorable people in my business dealings with them.

In the 1980s I bought many of my mail order coins from Edward Waddell - a very knowledgeable and reliable dealer (he dealt in a lot of high end coins - actually a little too rich for my blood - I busted my budget a few times buying coins from him) who put out very nice lists with reliable coin descriptions and attributions (very much my cuppa’ tea). To use a modern phrase “I was blown away” when he started to send out beautiful (albeit in black and white) glossy coin lists with high quality, large, coin photographs!!

I recall one detailed listing for the most magnificent Claudius sestertius I have ever seen - perfectly centered with complete legends and with the even olive green patina captured wonderfully on the accompanying photograph. I believe it was priced at (Edit: originally I think I had too many zeros) something like $2,000! Incidentally I do not know if Ed is still in business (or even alive) - the last time I talked to him was about ten years or so ago (maybe longer) at a Los Angeles show.

I have rambled on for too long here, please excuse me, but the nostalgia was great for me. In closing I want to say that my memory is sometimes not too good these days so some of the dates and descriptions of events may be somewhat inaccurate (as I discovered on carefully re-reading this post).

BTW, I am still maintaining my “Twenty coins” (that I will fondle, admire and study for the remainder of my days) page at:

https://jp29.org/twenty.htm

The constituency has changed a little, but it is now stable.

 

@jamesicus I just wanted to tell you that I have read some of your posts and I love the amount of effort, information, and time you put into them! Thank you so much making this forum GREAT !

PS I haven't been a member here very long but I love it !

 

James, Ed Waddell is still around. In fact I bought the following coin from him.

Vespasian RIC 544

 

Edit

 

Thank you very much @bcuda - that was very kind of you to take the time to write that nice message. I welcome you to this marvelous hobby, and this is indeed a great Forum.

 

Edit - duplicate post, sorry.

 

Here is a coin I recently picked up and the BCD tickets and photos that came with it - I too would love any additional insight @ab initio :

 

I always considered Ed Waddell one of the good guys but one I rarely dealt with because his minimum price coin tended to be above my maximum. He continues to be friendly when I see him at a show but certainly knows I am not a likely sale. Many years ago he registered the Internet address he still uses:
https://www.coin.com/
I was of the opinion then that the name coin.com could someday be worth as much as the coins but he continued to get better and better coins so I don't know.
My first coin from him in 1988:
Agathokles, Syracuse


In 1990, he had a terrible old collection far beneath what he usually carried and housed in the earliest generation of plastic flips that had covered the coins with green slime. I found a couple worth the risk of cleaning considering the low prices. He seemed embarrassed to sell them. I would not have paid what the coins were worth had someone else washed them.
Gallienus with the best portrait I have seen of his not to mention that gorgon shield

Those were the good old days. I'm glad for the sellers I knew then that have grown into better things and no longer have to carry coins in my bracket. I'm also glad I have not grown with them.