Crazy prices today RomaNumismatics auction

I was biding on a Constantine I Nummus that I wanted to go with a Constantine II that I already have. The Roma Numismatics auction estimate to sell in the auction was £60 ($74.50 USD). I had made what I thought was a overpriced bid and did not even come close to the hammer price. I am just shocked at what this coin sold for. Here is a pic of it take a look at it and get an idea of what you think it should have sold for. I will put the final price at the very end of this post .Please let me know how far off you were from the hammer price please.


Description
Constantine I BI Nummus. Rome, AD 320. CONSTANTINVS AVG, helmeted and cuirassed bust right / ROMAE AETERNAE, Roma seated right on round shield, holding another round shield inscribed X-V in two lines; RЄѠCP (ЄѠ ligate) in exergue. RIC 194 corr. (Roma seated left). 3.63g, 19mm, 6h.

Here is a pic of my Constantine II with the same mint mark.


Constantine II, AE Nummus
of Rome.
Obv: CONSTANTINVS IVN NOB C,
laureate, draped, cuirassed
bust right.
Rev: VOT X-ET XV F
R squiggle CS in three lines
within wreath. (Mintmark is
the 3rd line)
RIC VII Rome 206.
Not listed With officina S only T

Ok the hammer price was £650 ($807 USD) and that does not include the 20% auction fee for a total of £780 ($968 USD).
Tell us how close you were to the hammer price.

 

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Yes, I was watching the bids for the later Roman bronzes, and although I don't collect that period, I noticed that the bids were generally very strong.

The Attica tetradrachms, as usual, mostly attracted very healthy bids as well, usually at or above estimate. The retail prices on the market are also quite high, so I assume the demand is still strong despite the large influx of coins from the gigantic hoard that came out of Turkey.

 

Of the five that I wanted, two went for twice my max bid and the rest were one increment above my max. I will say that I am fairly conservative bidder, so I'm usually not willing to go above my max. Nothing for me today......

 

Well, it seems to be quite rare, according to the auction house and looking at acsearch too. So, some Constatine collectors got in a Budding frenzy, et voila. Does this mean all prices were ridiculous?

 

I was just about to ask this in another form. I don't collect Athenian tets, but I thought they were supposed to be cheaper because of the new hoard. From what I've observed they are no more affordable than they were before.

 

The three coins I bid on went for crazy prices and I did not win any of them, No it does not mean all were ridiculous I am sure there were some good buys.

 

It’s hard to comprehend this market. Looking at the OP coin, I was thinking «50-60£».
I have been buying quite nice coins (but not as nice as this one) at budget auctions for quite low prices and with little competition lately, among others this practically uncirculated Claudius II for 21£:


I wonder what that coin would have brought at Roma, instead of with a rather new auction site with sloppy practices and a bad rep.

 

I think there were some pretty good buys to be had in the large lots, if you happened to be interested in periods of the coins offered.

 

Yes, it is a head-scratcher. The sellers on VCoins and MA Shops are pricing these coins at healthy levels, very high actually, for mass production coins when compared to the hammer prices at the Roma auction, so perhaps there's a fair level of dealer participation at this and other auctions. When prices are concerned, everything is relative I guess.

I have seen former Roma auction Attica tetradrachms listed on MA Shops and VCoins, and the markups are quite healthy.

 

This is also something I find difficult to understand with the coin market: When buyers see 20 auctions going on, each with 10-15 samples of a specific coin type, why don’t the prices tank? I suspect that quite a few collectors simply don’t care if they pay 350$ or 900$ for a coin. I do, so many times I just won’t compete.

 

I thought the coins in the Roman Republic section were mostly reasonable, though they were mostly average condition coins with some problems. I did not win my main target which went a little high, but I knew it would. I did however win this denarius below estimate and just slightly over the starting price. I am pretty sure that Roma numismatics purchased this at the last Triton auction(where it was on my list but got bumped due to a later coin I was bidding on) to flip, and it hammered for a bit less than the Triton hammer.

Q. Sicinius AR Denarius. Rome, 49 BC. Diademed head of Fortuna right; P•R upwards behind, FORT before / Palm-branch and caduceus in saltire, laurel wreath above; III-VIR across fields, Q•SICINIVS below. Crawford 440/1; BMCRR Rome 3947-9; RSC Sicinia 5. 4.00g, 17mm, 10h.

 

There's also the psychology of bidding. Often bidding becomes the object and not so much the coin. I am sure this is a major element behind bidding in live and even e-auctions. Basically the driving force often comes down to ego. I'm not saying this is universal, but I think it is a driver for many bidders, especially those with deep pockets.

 

Yes. One thing is the win/lose, but I also think that the fact that someone bids against you serves as a confirmation that the object has value, so bid more.

 

Yeah today was nuts. I had 15 coins selected across Roman Imperials and won zero despite bidding well above estimate.

That being said, I’m also not surprised. So many Mint State and FDC graded coins estimated at sub 100 pounds. Just silly, and saw this coming. Just wish I could have snagged a few myself cause they were true beauties that I doubt we’ll be seeing for a while!



If the proud new owner of this Elagabalus ever wants to sell, I’ll be happy to take it off your hands

 

So true...

Getting back to Attica tetradrachm hammer prices on Roma, let's look at an example.

Lot 197 is a tetradrachm that is nicely centered, has the "full crest" that many collectors look for (misplaced in my opinion) and is graded EF by Roma. The hammer price was 550 BP on a 500 BP estimate. There is also a buyers commission of 20% (24% including VAT for UK bidders), or 110 BP. That brings the total price, excluding shipping and currency conversion, if applicable, to 660 BP.

Let's assume the buyer is from the US, buying the lot at 660 BP, so there is a currency conversion involved. Currently the British Pound is trading at roughly $1.24 US. However, the actual conversion rate would be higher the once conversion fee is added. I'll assume that would be $1.32 but that may be on the low or high side. So, the final price in dollars is $871.20. Shipping cost should also be factored in, but that's a cost that is affected on the number of lots purchased, so I won't do that in this exercise.

Now, if you are a dealer or even a collector seeking to boost the value of your purchase, you would have this coin slabbed. My experience with Roma is that their grading is fairly conservative, so there's a pretty good chance that the coin would be slabbed at a high grade and high numeric ratings. The strike and surfaces for this coin look very nice, based on the photo.

So, once the coin arrives back in the slab, if put on the market, it could easily, I think, be priced at $2,000 or perhaps more. Such is the economics of buying and selling owls.

 

I could actually see your coin going for around 500EUR at a high profile auction. It's a wonderful rarity.

 

A beautiful coin!

 

Wow, nice!

 

Wow, that's a fantastic portrait on that Elagabalus, someone is lucky.

 

NVM