This one was underweight and I should have suspected that much of the metal had leeched out of it while in the ground. It was very brittle and didn't survive the post office. The dealer (Romanorum) gave me a full refund and no longer ships anything without a padded envelope. It turns out that it had been improperly attributed, too. The inscription read IMP CC VIB ... instead of IMP CAE C VIB ..., making it a product of the branch mint (traditionally attributed to Mediolanum) and not Rome. I have since acquired a more structurally sound example of the coin.
I've only had one broken coin, a GLORIA EXERCITVS, from Constantitus I believe. It came in an uncleaned lot and I broke a piece off of it while cleaning it. I was, and still am, really upset about it. I can't imagine having a coin like any of the ones posted so far, break. I would be absolutely gutted.
Very sorry that you have had this experience @Suarez . The part that hurts is that it was a very nice coin.
A near miss just last week. Received a coin from an eBay seller in a non-padded oversized envelope. Tore off the top of the envelope and threw it in the trashcan. Checked the envelope. No coin. Double and triple checked. Then I looked in the trashcan. Apparently the coin had rolled to the top of the envelope; when I tore the top off and threw it away, I threw away the coin too. Fished it out of the trash. All is well. Wish the OP story was the same.
A Litra of Catane has arrived broken in 3 ! The auction house has refund me but it's a pitty that a coin that has survived 2500 years was so stupidly destroyed when it was enough to put it in a capsule that costs only a few cents...
You know I think that auction houses must do a bit of effort to review their shipping costs and process. I would like to stress a point , I bought to CNG for over 800 usd in one auction and as I am in Europe I paid 40 usd for postage and insurance the reason is because for European client first they send my coins to their UK office and then to me in Belgium. For that price it is normal insured mail not DHL or UPS or FEDEX .... not competitive at all and they don’t really think about to review their process. CNG is highly reputable but in my past business customer was king and it seems that in numismatic business the king is the seller. One of my friend a very rich numismatic collector share with me the same fed up and he got over 100 000 USD annual budget for buying coins ....
Back when I was at ANACS we received a Julius Caesar Denarius that was in one piece when we opened the package but which fell in two when I went to weigh it. Obviously the flaw was internal and aggravated by the mail handling, but we offered the submitter his $800 declared value and he accepted. The coins has been glued back together and has been on display in the ANA Museum at various times.
Ras, try to repair it. There is a buyer out there who will take it at the right price. I purchased this Mark Antony denarius at a discounted price and am very happy to have it. It was a former CNG coin. Here are before and after images:
Oh gosh, I hate this for you! I've never received a broken coin, but I've had coins mailed in paper envelopes, just thrown in there, no flip or anything. I've had then come in stapled flips that in turn scratched other coins in the same envelope. You'd think if these sellers sold coins they'd at least know how to ship them properly.
Good idea - the 6x4x2 size are only 44c when you buy 50, large enough for address labels,large enough not to be lost in processing, sturdy enough to protect the contents https://www.ebay.com/itm/White-Corr...Lv5PairwiseWeb&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851
Too sad to think about. A dealer should refund money for these broken coins, but nothing can fully restore the broken centuries of history.
Hey there Gary, Happy to donate this busted up this John II gold trachy to this guy if you can find out who he is, or whoever else can repair it, if they're willing to post back here the before-and-after. I don't have the patience or aptitude to try welding these pieces back together. Rasiel
