Just back from a coin show in Montreal. As usual, only 3 or 4 guys with ancient stuff. But you tell me my friends, what is better than searching in a “Junk Pile” of 350 4th century coins ? It was by best 1 1/2 hour of the week. And I had to bring back some little souvenirs, hadn’t I ? Please feel free to show us your discoveries from “Junk pile’s”. My new babies And the famous pile
searching in a “Junk Pile” of 350 4th century coins and finding something nice. Last time i searched in a junk pile i felt sorry for those coins - after 1700 years, somebody made sure that the "junk pile" deserved the name.
Especially the Magnentius definitely is not junk – I'd call that a nice coin with a good portrait. Here is my best "junk pile find" so far. I basically bought it because I had searched through the pile for far too long to leave without buying anything, recognized Mount Argaios, and thought the coin kind of attractive. Later on, I found out that this is somewhat of a Cappadocian rarity. There are only seven known examples listed in RPC and three additional ones on acsearch. All of them hammered at three digit prices, so I consider this a good find: Archelaus, Kingdom of Cappadocia, Æ18, 24/23 BC (?), Eusebeia mint. Obv: Head Dionysos right, wearing ivy wreath. Rev: EVΣΕ – ΒΕΙΑΣ, eagle over Mount Argaios. 18mm, 5.02g. Ref: RPC I, 3610.
Nice find @Orielensis ! I was also happy to discover a Constantius Gallus in the pile. Since he was one of the few who escaped the family massacre, I felt like I was saving him from the junk...I’m a hero...
Some good finds! The coins in that box look pretty nice and not like junk at all. I have seen much worse. I love searching through pick bags and bargain bins. John
It is fun to look through junk piles, especially when the price is right. I collect ancient coins because I happened across a Junk Pile at a coin shop in Houston (HNE). Most of the coins attributed in a few weeks. One worn coin took a few years. It was a Roman Provencal bronze of Diadumenianus. A more recent find is an Imperial bronze.
Of course Gary Miller and Svetolik were there. Haven’t seen so many high grades coins for a long times. If I had 20,000$ of budget I could have spend it in one hour !
What a glorious hour and a half that would have been. Many years ago I bought one of these – it looked pretty much the same – for $5 from a junk box (Kokotailo). But years later I sold it! (Dumb.)
As a whole the coin dealers have decided to ignore the junk bin market and concentrate on where the money is in high grade, popular coins. You can't blame them for going for the money that pays the bills but it may not be the best, log term decision. Sixty years ago I went into local coin store upstairs in downtown office buildings where nice old men tolerated me going through dishes of fifty cent bronzes and $5 denarii while I wished I could afford their $50 treasures. They taught me about coins and history. Now beginners are told that they are wasting their money with 'affordable' coins and this self fulfilling prophesy is right unless you count feeding the desire to move up to the better things someday. There are exceptions - especially show dealers encouraging kids and older dreamers. I applaud them. There are many that are pleasant to people not ready to spend $50 and $500 (applying the factor for inflation in the last 60 years) but the hobby seems more aimed on investment coins rather than one that make us feel good felling them with bare fingers. Few of them have coins to sell them. Will enough collectors join the hobby after they have paid off their student loans and built their practices/businesses to replace those now on Social Security? What will be the final resting place for the millions of sub-MS coins when those of us who collected them have finished with them? I hope there will be fingers who want to feel them.
My mobility and cognitive problems make coin shows impossible at the minute, and I think it's a real shame. Although I really enjoy the hobby as an exclusively online activity until the coin plops through the post box, I know the pleasure of the hunt well from my years of flicking through LPs and paperbacks in dusty boxes, looking for interesting looking oop books or those records that never made the transition to CD.
