Last Friday I spotted an interesting solidus of Phocas, in Great Collections weekly listing, see photo below. The coin was "high grade" and had an unusual attribution of Ravenna/Thessalonica (?) . To complicate matters G.C. listed the coin from the Constantinople Mint, and listed the weight as 4.52 gm ? I thought to myself that they must have confused this coin with another solidus in the auction, but there was no other solidus in the auction . Someone had bid $300 for the coin, and after doing some research I determined that if the coin was from the Thessalonica mint it was RARE. I promptly bid $600 for the coin . By Saturday the bidding reached $650, so I decided to do some more research. I pulled out a book I rarely look at, Roman Gold Coins of the Medieval World, 383 - 1453 A.D., by HARLAN J. BERK, copyright 1986. Low and behold, there was the exact coin pictured in Berk's book, #109 ! The coin wasn't slabbed in the photo, but no doubt, it was the same coin, even the weight matched the slab info. My heart started racing . Now I had to have that coin ! I bid $750 for the coin. By Sunday morning the bidding reached $850. Determined to get that coin I bid $1,400 for it ! Who would be crazy enough to outbid me ? Five minutes before the auction closed I checked the listing once more, now the coin was at $1,500 . I bid once more at $1550, confident the coin was mine . Two snipers jumped in with 20 seconds to go and the coin went for $2,982.95, with buyers fee ! Ambushed again .
Nice coin. Hope you have better luck next time. The snipers may have read the same book, and determined to get the coin as well.
Nearly every listing I've seen by dealers & auction houses use a "?" when attributing a solidus of Phocus to Thessalonica . Harlan Berk doesn't use a "?" in his book; so who am I to question one of the worlds experts ? On the other hand, Berk wrote his book 34 years ago, and no convincing evidence has surfaced to positively prove Phocas did strike gold at Thessalonica. Anyone attributing gold coins of Phocus to Thessalonica, is doing it on style alone. David Metcalf, writing in a lengthy essay in 1984, states no gold in the reign of Phocas can be positively attrbuted to the mint of Thessalonica. Bronze coins of Phocus from the mint of Thessalonica are common.
Don’t feel too bad about that one @Al Kowsky, I was the second highest bidder on that coin ☹️ and was hoping someone on CT eventually won it. It was a unique piece from the Dimitriadis collection and had previously sold for 4,000+ back in 2014. The new owner is a lucky person Covid or no Covid, the prices achieved were quite high overall, but I managed to snag a couple of beauties
We both probably got ambushed by the likes of @AncientJoe or @panzerman , guys with much deeper pockets than us
...well, i'm sorry that you didn't get your hearts desire...but...there's a whole lotta other coins to be had to console you...
1934 Wealth Crown, Thanks for the confession . I'm only crying with one eye . I'm very thankful for the many impressive coins I do have . There's one aspect of the hobby that too many collectors overlook or don't appreciate enough, that's the chase. Snagging a great coin at a bargain price from an auction gives me a high like dropping a 10 point buck on the opening day of hunting season . It is a sport of some kind .
Wolfgang Hahn, 2005 "Zur Münzprägung des frühbyzantinischen Reiches" pp. 195 writes (my translation): "... In the years of Phocas, Thessalonica issued a highly differentiated series of gold and copper coins: apart from solidi and tremisses it included also semisses, and besides the usual half and quarter-folles it also included large folles ... For the identification of the solidi we have to rely on the copper coins (which are marked with TES) and which provide clues for both the frontal busts of the solidi and the profile bust of the gold fractions." Judging by the pictures in Hahn's book, the wonderful solidus above does not seem to scream Thessalonica, perhaps Ravenna?
