Recent Auction Results of Koson Staters

High-grade Koson staters have been fetching high prices at auction lately, especially NGC slabbed examples. Most of these staters are in mint state & have been found in large hoards, but the examples struck from fresh dies that are well centered are fetching the highest prices. Two of these staters that received a lot of publicity & were sold by Heritage Auctions, were found in Salvation Army buckets ! A note was also found in the bucket by the anonymous donor. They are the first two coins pictured below. Originally they were slabbed by IGC, and then given to NGC by Heritage.





NGC 5745647-002, Ch MS, Strike 5/5, Surface 5/5. $3,000.00


NGC 5745647-001, MS, Strike 4/5, Surface 4/5. $1800.00. This variety without the BR monogram is less desirable than examples with the monogram.


NGC 3598400-001, Ch MS*, Strike 5/5, Surface 5/5. $2880.00.


This example was sold by CNG in a raw state less than two weeks ago at CNG 469, lot 32, Ex Fine condition, $2655.00.

I was lucky to score the coin pictured below at a Freeman & Sear Mail Bid Sale 12, November 28, 2005.


NGC 2491172-001, Gem MS, Strike 5/5, Surface 5/5.

 

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Where did the hoard originate from?

 

NewStyleKing, Several large hoards of Koson Staters have been found going back to the 16th century, usually in ancient Dacia or modern Romania.

 

For anyone interested in reading about the origin of Koson Staters, who made them & why they were made I suggest following the link below. Robert Kokotailo, of Calgary Coins wrote this study dispelling many of the old theories about these coins.

http://www.calgarycoin.com/reference/articles/koson/koson.htm

 

Is it me or the prices for these went up by 100%? I've been wanting one for a while now and thought they were around 1k.

 

Koson Staters are plentiful & they constantly pop-up for sale & auction. With a little bit of searching I'm sure you could find examples in the $1,000 - 1,500 range, however, as I stated earlier the best examples are selling in the $2,500 - 3,500 range. The coin market has been very active this year because the economy & stock market are on shaky ground. The covid-19 pandemic has had a positive effect on the ancient coin market too.

 

For what it's worth, a few friends of mine (who already have Koson staters) bid the recent Salvation Army coins up to well above market prices to give them a better donation.

The other coin... I can't explain. I was offered my pick from a bag of 100+ of these a few years ago and passed (at a price of $1050 - I assume the dealer paid $1K each). Supporting hoards isn't good and, if a coin is available by the hundreds, it's probably not worth urgently buying.

 

AncientJoe, Like it or not, most of the common ancient coins on the market today have come from hoards, without regards to the legality of their dispersal. A good example of this is the massive hoard of Owls that has been flooding the market recently. I bought one of these Owls last year for a fraction of the price the coin would have sold for 10 years ago & felt no guilt about doing so. Not everyone has the luxury of buying rare coins with an established legal provenance. In regards to Koson Staters, these coins have been available in quantity for centuries & offer collectors of modest means an opportunity to own a gold coin of historical importance for just a fraction of the cost of a Roman imperial denarius issued by Brutus.

 

I agree and while I try to buy pedigreed coins, it is indeed much tougher. For what it's worth, I would count your example as pedigreed with the 2005 sales record: that puts it noticeably above the others.

The Koson staters are a particularly sensitive area as a couple years ago at the NYINC show, government officials confiscated a number of them on the request of the Romanian government. I don't believe there were any legal ramifications for the owners but it caused auction houses to be more cautious with them for a while. It seems like that claim has passed now but it's still recent enough for me to personally avoid them.

 

I remember the incident you're referring to in NYC. Just prior to that show I had sent a group of ancient coins to Heritage for auction, included in that group was a choice Koson Stater. They returned that coin to me citing the incident at the NY show. A coin dealer in Germany also had Koson Staters confiscated on behalf of the Romanian government just prior to the NY incident. That German dealer took the Romanian government to court & won his case ! After the German case concluded all the paranoia about owning Koson Staters dissipated . About 6 months after the German court case, I sent my rejected Koson Stater back to Heritage & got a good price for it .

 

That's good to know! I hadn't heard there was a positive resolution to it.

 

Turkey asked for a hoard find to be repatriated from various US dealers and it was eventually. It contained genuine Athens Dekadrachms. They are now in a museum somewhere probably gathering dust or maybe being replaced by replicas!

 

I recently purchased a small collection and it included two high quality Koson staters, both slabbed. Unfortunately no provenance was included but one is graded by NGC as GEM UNCIRCULATED.

I wonder how much information NGC stores on their submissions? I would love to know at least when it was sent for grading. Would NGC be willing to share more information than what is on the label? Perhaps @Barry Murphy could answer those questions if he can spare the time.

 

Send me the numbers I can tell you when it was graded. I can’t tell you who sent it in.

Barry Murphy

 

Private message sent, thanks @Barry Murphy

 

It will be interesting to know how was the market for these coins before 1993 ? , asking the old collectors or searching in old auction catalogues....I will explain below way this specific year. Acsearch.info database goes back more than 19 years (only), the first Koson listed there was sold in march 2001.

Some years ago (at a coin show) I had the chance to talk to with Robert Kokotailo (the author of the study presented above) about Koson coins , he had one or two gold Koson for sale ..... his story about Koson coins aroused my interest and I did some researches after. I found this case study from United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
https://sherloc.unodc.org/res/cld/c...n_treasure_case_html/Dacian_Treasure_Case.pdf
During the 1993 - 2007 period a series of Koson hoards were stolen from Romanian archaeological sites(protected by UNESCO) , they are still internationally pursued by Interpol :

year 1996 - around 3000 Koson gold coins - 25 kg
year 2004 - 2300 Koson silver coins
year 2007 - 1200 Koson gold coins

As stated in the document , till now they recovered only 1.024 gold and 252 silver Koson coins.... a few thousand coins are still missing

coins recovered during the 2014 -2018 period :

 

singig, Thanks for your post . I found your attached link interesting & informative. The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) is obviously interested in going after large hoards of looted treasure, not single coins being offered by dealers & auction houses, or unprovenanced coins in the hands of collectors. If the FBI, Romanian government representative, or INTERPOL agent came to my residence demanding my Koson Stater, they would have to take me jail & torture me before I surrendered the coin . International auction houses have sold thousands of Koson Staters. Over the last 20 years Heritage has sold over 200 of these coins. On the other hand, if I was approached by a dealer like AncientJoe was, who had a bag of 100+ loose coins for sale, I'd shy away from that too . At the risk of sounding cavalier I have to ask, what will the Romanian government do with the gold coins that have been returned to them ? Will they be put on display at the Romanian National Museum? Would anyone travel to see a display of hundreds of coins that all basically look alike ?

 

They certainly haven't got time & resources to do die studies. And it is quite possible that close access to do such things will not be allowed. Similar in Bulgaria. And Italy.

 

I went to Trier to see this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trier_Gold_Hoard
The hoard is displayed like in the Wikipedia photo. There is an interesting display with other Roman coins and mint tools.

I believe the kosons go to the National History Museum. They had some exposed (read this, did not visit). If I get to Bucharest anytime soon, I can check. The National Bank also has around 200 pcs; the National Bank has a museum too. The kosons are a sort of national pride, so the State will hunt and hoard them. Next on their list are the coins of the Greek cities at the Black Sea. Did not hear much about other coins / periods.

 

It should be hard. That's the point about ethical collecting. Below a Koson provenanced to the 1950s from the STR collection. They are hard to find. But I do not now touch a coin that I knew to be from any hoard excavated in the last 20 years (basically since the Euphronios Krater fiasco started the process that led to provenances now all being documented by dealers, and new hoard coins getting the cold shoulder). My collection turnover reflects that.

All types including those commonly from modern hoards are avail, with great difficulty and at a higher price, from old collection sources. If serious about old collection material and avoiding new hoard material, the choice is there.