Someone's going to learn a valuable lesson - Double check attribution!

https://www.biddr.ch/auctions/savocalondon/browse?a=760&l=801526

Ouch!

(Before I spill the beans, I wonder how many members here can properly ID this coin - hint, it's not Celtic, and not worth a tenth of what it sold for!)

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Looks familiar. I think It's Indian.

 

18th/19th century silver fanam from South India?

 

I say Indian also.

 

This is one of the risks you run with bidding in some auction houses that do not fully attribute their material. In this case it seems they took a wild guess and the buyer will be left holding the bag for a coin worth maybe $10 but paid 110 GBP before juice.

 

You guys got it. It's late 19th / very early 20th century silver chuckram from Travancore in southern India. They are the poster child for affordable and interesting sub-10mm coins that can be purchased for under $10 - in fact, $5-8 is the normal price when buying one on ebay.

I've seen them listed as Celtic coins by shady ebay sellers, but never by a professional auction house before.

Did anyone bid in this auction? I was watching a few lots but didn't spot anything I wanted badly enough to deal with shipping charges.

 

A 6mm coin? I didn't know anyone made them that small.

 

I have one of these!


Mine looks a bit different because different portions are on the flan. My pic is out of focus, but it was very hard to get a picture of such a tiny coin.

 

Oops, darn, I shouldn't have shelled out that much I guess!

Just kidding, wasn't me. Savoca definitely makes a few attribution mistakes. Once I won a misattributed Judaean, but when I realized the error (a day or two after the auction) they were happy to cancel my bid. So if this was you, write to them!

Of course the errors sometimes occur in the buyer's favour too. Below are three bargains I nabbed as a result of Savoca mistakes.


Johannes misdescribed as Theodosius


An extremely rare provincial of Augustus from Phokaia, misdescribed as a common Smyrna type


An extremely rare early Islamic Byzantine imitation from the 640s-650s (Rashidun caliphate), misdescribed as an ordinary Constans.

But Savoca has collected up enough bidders now that it's getting a lot harder to snag a bargain from them. For example there were some misdescribed rare late Byzantines in a recent auction, but their hammers went through the roof.