Post pix of GOLD ancients you can get for less than $1,000

Well the Indian imitative aureus I posted is gold - CNG sell them from time to time, though the prices are generally higher than they were 10 years ago (I paid less than the current melt value and should have picked up a few more):

https://www.cngcoins.com/Search.asp..._TYPE_ID=2&VIEW_TYPE=0&MAX_COUNT=10000&PAGE=1

The Probus aureus I got in August is in poor condition, but gold and was < $1000 before buyer's fee (£700, but + 24% = £868, so about $1153 all-in).


ATB,
Aidan.

 

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We cant ever forget Basil the Macedonian!

 

I agree with others here-- if you want sub-$1000 gold, Byzantine is the way to go. By some definitions it's not ancient. I don't know what timeline cutoff the OP was aiming for.

Here's a $23 Byzantine gold coin*. It's not pretty but if you want gold (and a portrait that looks like a great(x)grandfather of Mick Jagger) it's a bargain .


Constantine IV, 668-685 CE
AV tremissis, 1.4 gm, 17 mm
Constantinople mint
Obv: DN CONSTANTINUS PPAG; Pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right
Rev: VICTORIA AVGUS; cross potent; CONOB
Ref: SB 1162

*It was part of a group lot so that price is intentionally misleading. However, you can probably find a similar coin for less than $200.

If you want your sub-$1000 ancient or ancient-ish coin to be both gold and pretty, go for a larger Byzantine denomination such as a solidus.

If you're okay with electrum rather than a higher gold content coin, go for one of the abundant electrum fractionals on the market.

 

Thanks! Even though I can't read, write, or speak Arabic, a lot of others can and the books I have aided me in the transcriptions. Its hard to own a coin when you can't read the legends! So, it gives me some satisfaction when I can transcribe them...

 

If you want to get really down and dirty, you can go for less than $100 USD.

Arabia, Sulayhid. Ali b. Muhammad, 439-473 H (AD 1047-1081). Debased AV Dinar (22mm, 2.30g). Local imitation, immobilized issue of 451 h, Zabid(?) mint. Ref: Album 1075.3; cf. ICV-1103 (for prototype). Note from a similar 2018 Stephen Album lot: "Probably struck locally in Yemen, perhaps by the Hamdanids of San'a".

 

Hi All,

Ptolemaic gold is usually large and largely expensive. However, there are a few early small pieces that fit the title of this thread. If you are ok with slightly mushy, or ex-jewelry pieces you can get them for between US$ 500-600 at the lowest end (a bit grubby or a really good bargain) to just under $1000 for VF. Here are three that fit these criteria.







Some more info on these from Lorber's CPE: The final currency reform of Ptolemy I introduced new designs for the precious metal coinage, Ptolemy’s portrait on the obverse and an eagle on thunderbolt on the reverse. These small gold pieces may represent the tetarte, a unit defined as one quarter of a gold stater or one sixteenth of the mnaieion according to a metrological text of the third - fourth century AD, P Oxy XLIX 3455, ll. 28-29. The tetarte was the preferred unit for measuring gold objects in Graeco-Roman Egypt. H Cuvigny (2003, p 117) considered it to be a theoretical unit only, but she calculated a weight of 1.73g (based on the weight of the mnaieion) which is identical to the weight of the smallest gold coin of Ptolemy I. This weight is very slightly less than one tenth of the trichryson and slightly less than one quarter of the gold stater of the previous coinage. The silver equivalence of these small coins is also slightly imprecise, as one sixteenth of the mnaieion is 6.25 silver drachms rather than 6.

- Broucheion

 

...On your page. 'Coin Arabic' (which I Don't have) is a heck of a lot better than none. ...Impressionistically, though, it's still easy to see fun affinities between different Semitic languages, like (in vague order of perceived similarity) Arabic, Syriac (notably from Cilician Armenia), archaic Hebrew, and Ge'ez.

 

Broucheion, those are Brilliant. Especially in light of how tough Ptolemy I is to find even (!!) in AE. Big things come in small packages!

 

Here is one I posted recently in another thread but it matches the theme so figured I post it here as well.

I have always kept tags if there were any and it states that I paid 400 SEK witch is about US$ 46. This was about 20 years ago.

 

Hi @Spargrodan,

That's a marvelous price! Here is the Egyptian version of this type, which cost about US$300 a few years ago.



Album-0218.13; Lavoix # 765 (Paris Bibliotheque Nationale), Lane Poole (Khedivial Collection in Cairo) # 431. Bernardi 73.

- Broucheion

 

Spargrodan and Broucheion, for Harun-al-Rashid, I'd cheerfully pay that much (if I had it, reliably) for either one! I have a dirham, and am glad of it.

 

Seems like I got a good bargain even though the perforation. I think even today's gold price is higher that what I payed back then.

 

Epigraphy is a hobby of mine as well and yes, the similarities between scripts is crazy at times. Unicode has helped immensely in this area! As more and more scripts are encoded, the easier it is to transcribe coins. The next on my long list is to take a whack at Cursive Bactrian Greek and Sogdian...

 

Cursive Bactrian --no, I believe you, but I can't keep from chuckling....

 

like @Egry : Damaged and repaired so price slightly under 1000$ for this EL stater of Carthage 310-290 BC
ref Müller 52, Jenkins-Lewis group V n°285-93, Alexandropoulos 12

 

Posted this one a few times before. Celtic gold coins can be bought relatively cheap - this one was 700€, which is relatively cheap for the quality and pleasant toning (I guess in auction it would do around 900€ - still below the 1000).

CELTS, Ambiani celts.
AV Stater, minted: Ambiani region, (current France, near Amiens); 58-55 BC

Obverse: Blank
Reverse: Disjointed horse right with remains of charioteer above; crescent above pellet below, intertwined lines pattern in exergue
Weight: 6.02g; Ø:17mm. Catalogue: Evans 1864 Pl.B8; Scheers 1977 series 24, class IV (type) . Provenance: Ex private collection (Found in France, ca. 2000); acq.: 08-2019
Details:
The Ambiani Celts were Belgic people of Celtic language. In 57 BC, when Julius Caesar started his Belgic campain, they were able to muster 10.000 armed men. However, when Julius Caesar came close to their capital Samarobriva (probably the modern Amiens), they submitted to Caesar. This gold stater was probably minted to finance the war against Julius Caesar. There are two hypotheses regarding the blank observe: 1) as several Celtic tribes made an alliance, a typical Celtisized horse was used for the reverse. The observe was left blank as to signify that the coins were minted by a coalition of tribes – ‘headless’ in other words, or 2) to speed up the production process. The latter explanation is more plausible, as the coins were made in a great hurry.

 

Very nice find! One of my personal favorites. Well done under $1k.

 

under $1000. Constantine VIII (1025-1028) AV Histamenon Nomisma

+ in the under $100 range a Roger II, 1105-1154, Tari (cut)

 

All of my gold is from the medieval time frame, 1436-99. I'm not even sure if any or even a few would come in under $1000. I do enjoy this thread,
lots of nice coins. I was hoping John >Panzerman would post a few more. Keep em coming!!