pprp's top 5 for 2020

pprp, Nice group of Greek coins with impressive pedigrees ! My favorite is #2, the handsome stater of Herakleia. The reverse composition is especially nice .

 

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I think quality over quantity is something that applies here! Each is absolutely stunning and has an amazing provenance to boot. The Olympian coin is especially fantastic, as is the turtle! I’d love to see what a good year would have looked like

 

A fabulous five! Great pedigrees all around, but also interesting types and excellent examples. The Herakleia, my favorite, has lovely style and great composition on the reverse. The dolphin rider is intriguing for that control below the waves. The sea turtle is one of the most attractive I've seen, and the Olympia stater... simply iconic and a Seltman plate coin to boot! Congrats on all your pickups.

 

How about having a look at the ones that got away. It would be instructive if you listed your top bid for each one as well as the actual hammer.

 

I totally agree with you. The competition has more than doubled online causing prices to go through the roof. I have slowed my purchases also and plan to keep it that way until things get better. Your top 5 is great thanks for posting them

 

Thanks for the interest I will post them in a separate message below. Actually your message made me realize that I don't keep a record of my failed bids. And it seems that CNG only displays the last 5 sales, ROMA does not display the last floor auction. Not to mention the times I participated by phone...

 

Since a few friends asked, I will share a few of my failed bids. My concern is not that I lost; it happens all the time to everybody. My concern is the feeling that the competitor would never stop calling. The pattern is a bit repetitive. When the online bidding finishes, the "telephone" pops up and always wins. For the Antigonos tet from the Ward collection (in my earlier post) which I had to get at any cost, I bid 8500 for a starting price of 300 while no provenance was noted. I also note that numbers 2 and 3 below were auctioned just a few years ago in the same venue and the hammer prices were significantly smaller.

1. A syracuse tetradrachm; an 80's provenance noted. My bid was 22.000; it sold for 23.000.




2. A tetradrachm from Katane; no old provenance noted. My bid was 4000; it sold for 4250.


3. A tetradrachm from Maroneia; no old provenance noted. My bid was 4750, it sold for 5000.



4. A tetrobol from Athens; no old provenance noted. My bid was 2500, it sold for 2750.



5. A stater from Sikyon; a 1977 provenance noted. My bid was 3500 it sold for 3600.

 

Great coins! I love the Aegina stater.

 

As underbidder on several lots, the sellers made more from your participation than on the buyers of any coin. I can see how one could be a favorite customer of an auction house and never win anything.

 

Those are brutal coins to be outbid on as they're all exceptionally nice pieces. I try to take solace in the fact that, even when the underbidder, it might have required another 10 bids to outbid the buyer. I wish there were "exit polls" to see what the true max bids were.

(And, if it's any consolation, one of the coins I'm waiting on is a Doson which cost me a fair bit more than yours despite having less of a pedigree. I also fell in love with it and paid a strong price - perhaps it's Poseidon beard envy which brings out the worst in us)

 

Oh, I have no doubts that the hammers would have gone even higher if I insisted and I doubt I would have succeeded in the end. None of these coins are so rare to get me into the Antigonos bidding mode...And this is why I am surprised by the strong competition, since coins numbers 2 to 5 which I lost are nice but still VF or VF+ in the best case. So the competition is probably buying provenanced material at any cost and doesn't care for getting only EF or EF-.

I actually wanted the Antigonos coin because of the symbol which is the star of Vergina. I was unfortunate to run into the provenance which I assume brought the competition. And I am not a provenance freak. I first have to like a coin regardless of the provenance. On many occasions when I discover a hidden provenance before the auction takes place I am usually cursing because as I know I can never compete with the usual suspect...

Looking forward to see your Antigonos; if it's from an auction, I can speculate it's either the MDC or the Oslo one. Taking out the rarity/symbol aspect both are way nicer coins than mine.

 

A big thanks to all who have read, replied or reacted to this thread. I am eagerly waiting for the holidays to go through the almost 60 threads with your top purchases. It's really interesting to see what other collectors like.

And I would like to add a guest star to my top 5. It passed through 5 sales within 3 years until we found each other

Guest Star (to stay): MYSIA, Kyzikos. 550-450 BC. EL Stater (17mm, 16.04 g). Ram recumbent right, head left; below, tunny left / Quadripartite incuse square. Von Fritze I 47.