My favorite coins from reputable ebay sellers... I got this Marcus Aurelius sestertius from cody111111 Got this sinope drachm from frascatius. Both are pretty well known and respectable dealers. You are unlikely to find a fake from amongst them
The 2 best sellers imo. And I remember that drachm. Lol nice score. I think that was the day I got the one in my profile pic. I already posted it. So I am not going to again but I do have it in my album on CT.
I love eBay because you can get so many bargains, and it's much cheaper than VCoins. That said, when I first started collecting, I got very excited about seeing a 'rare' coin at a very cheap price, before finally chickening out on bidding and missing out, only later discovering that the coin was fake. IMO eBay is great for people that have enough experience to positively identify fakes. It is also great for people who are new to the hobby SO LONG AS they buy from reputable dealers, preferably ones with a physical store. Anyway, I'll share some of my eBay bargains Vabalathus antoninianus, sole reign. Cost me about £30, and worth at least £600 Balbinus antoninianus in pretty bad condition. This might be a fouree, £45 Carausius barbarous wolf and twins type in pretty decent condition. Valued at £150-£200 by auction house, cost me £20. I contacted Sam Moorhead of the British Museum, and he said he'd illustrate it and add it as a footnote in his Carausius catalogue! I'll put a cheap, common coin here as well. Salonina antoninianus in pretty much perfect condition. Cost me £8 There's also an extremely rare coin that I am hoping to win today, so I'll make a post if I do. Wish me luck...
I'm glad you brought up numis-kimel - I really enjoy going through their lists, and although a lot is overpriced, if you save it on your watch list, they always offer a decent discount. Since descriptions are often vague or incorrect, it is fun to hunt for bargains. I don't really hunt as hard for LRBs, but I suspect they have some real gems in their listings. Furthermore, I have found shipping from the Czech Republic to the USA to be surprisingly fast - 3 or 4 weeks or so. I don't buy a lot from them, but here is one of my favorites - a sestertius of Julia Domna with the half-naked Venus on the reverse - as is often the case with this seller, the description was vague: "ROMAN SESTERTIUS". It's not in great shape, but at $15 ("best offer") it was a good deal, I thought: Julia Domna Æ Sestertius (193-196 A.D.) Rome Mint [IVLIA] DOMNA AVG draped bust right / VE[NERI VICTRI] S C, Venus, naked to waist, standing left from behind, apple in r. hand, palm over shoulder, left elbow resting on column RIC 842; Cohen 195; BMC 488. (21.95 grams / 28 mm) Here's another one from that seller - a rather scarce variation of a Byzantine follis of Anastasius. This was incorrectly described as "BYZANTINE EMPIRE JUSTINIANUS FOLLIS": Anastasius Æ Follis n.d. (c. Sep. 517-July 518 A.D.) Constantinople Mint DN [A]NASTASIVS P P AV(G), pearl diademed, draped, cuirassed bust right / Large M, dot over star over [dot ] left, cross above, dot over star over dot right, Є below, CON in ex. SB 21; MIB 28b. (14.52 grams / 31 mm) eBay Oct. 2020 $16.00 Notes: "According to Hahn, at the beginning of the last lustrum of Anastasius' reign (September 517), dots were added to all new cut coins. Since Anastasius died 10 months later (July 518), these coins are somewhat scarce." CT - Severus Alexander, Dec. 2017 "Only the 5th officina is recorded for this type with the M flanked...by a star with pellet above and below." FORVM
Here's a very nice Maximianus follis from @MarcosX (xago) I got back in April for what I consider a paltry $36. What a chunk of later Roman bronze! And in that same shipment, picked up a few others including this early Gordian ant for $36.89... The detailed Pax spoke to me, I mean, look at that face! And further filled out the order with this other Maximianus for $17.50... I needed a Nike reverse like this. And this Probus for $12.56... I didn't have a Probus, nor this type. Great communication and easy to work with. I couldn't be happier with these or my other subsequent purchases I've made with him! (including my SS gift this past year.) Thank you, Marcos!
Its one of the reasons my first 5 post were "Are these real?" And lucky 99% of members here are very helpful and informative. I actually found this sight when I seen it had a list of known fake sellers. I think alot of the fake sellers piggy back off the names of well known sellers.
Cool, a few already brought up cody111111 & frascatius. Cody11111 has a pretty good rotation of decent coins; I like his store. Seems like an honest, friendly guy. Just got this one. $7.50. Good bit of silvering left, (doesn't show in my pic well) nice Re strike. In-hand it's light green with silvering. Ob: CONSTANTINVS IVN NOB C Pearl-Diad. Dr. & Cuir. Bust R. Re: VICTORIA - CAESS NN Vict. Adv. L., Holds Wr. & Palm. In Ex: TS"dot"B = Thessalonica
For ref, after looking at this one a bit more, I have it pegged as RIC X 2137. Possible 2138 but I think what I initially took for a wreath is actually the "O" in the legend; I'm pretty sure that's a Chi-Rho L field, the "X" part is more there in-hand. There's maybe 7 of us that actually care abt these little Late Romans, so this doesn't matter much, but 2137 is a rarer type for Val. III & examples can be a little hard to find; so here's one. Open to opinions on it, if any of the 6 other people who care about these happen to see this. RIC X-2137/ESTY-69 or RIC X-2138/ESTY-70?
This seller is named lorstuff. Nice guy, really knowledgeable. Trustworthy for sure. I got this maybe Vandal, maybe Valentinian III (I think Val III) cross potent in wreath with no termination. Late issue, time with no mint mark, but from Rome. I think the Ob is something like DN VAL-E(epsilon)N AV(AV ligate). Could be a Vandalic attempt at a Val legend. Some off flan, but they almost all are & what's there is pretty nice. Oh 180° axis too, not the 90° more common to the Vandal coins. $50 + S&H&T Good seller for sure.
I bet the silvering on that Maximian Follis is nice in-hand. That Gordian III too! Engraver got some emotion on Pax. Nice finds
I've been buying some coins recently from an Israeli seller, s.c.numismaticandartuser who has some pretty interesting items. He is willing negotiate (make an offer). So, far no problems either with shipping or with the coins. Another seller, who mainly sells slabbed coins, is eternitycoin, based in California. He's been a member since Aug 19, 2002, so he has a good track record. I've noticed that the prices, generally, for his slabbed ancients isn't all that marked up compared to non-slabbed coins. A shrewd collector could get pretty good deals buying this way, especially in light of the insane auction hammer prices for some coins nowadays. I think the same can be said of MA Shops and Vcoins.
The one time I purchased from a dealer in Israel, I had to wait more than a month before the Israel Antiquities Authority issued the necessary export permit -- a much longer wait than the dealer's original estimate of 10 days.. You didn't encounter that issue at all?
My recent experience with shipments from Israel has been around three weeks for delivery, sometimes up to four or five (especially during the holidays). That's for tracked first class mail. And, of course, the pandemic has slowed just about everything coming from overseas. There's also Express Mail. That takes no more that 10 days. Back during the upheaval at the USPS last summer, when the sorting machines were removed and deliveries were significantly delayed, I did have one letter lost from Israel. The tracking just stopped and the USPS admitted that the letter was indeed lost. I don't expect a repetition of that, although the current Postmaster General did tell Congress that there will be further delays for first class mail and that service hours will be reduced. We'll see if Congress lets him do this. Getting the export permit can cause some delay, but I wonder if that depends on the item for which the permit is being requested.
This seller I've bought quite a few coins from, mostly from his days on FORVM ANCIENT COINS' auction, but recently re-found him on ebay (& just in time to catch this coin!). Seller's name is: cichosgladiator11 This coin came in a lot of 5 for abt $13. The other 4 were: 2 nice "Vandal" coins; 1 an Ob no-leg bust R, Re Anastasius monogram, 7 mm. Other, tiny 5mm, crude bust R, "W"? monogram Re (haven't gotten arnd to final attribution of them yet). 2 were imperial; Marcian, monogram, Antioch mint (mm on-flan). Other, Leo I, lion Re, CON mint (nice mm on-flan), the lone no-wreath version of the type. Whole lot listed as "Zeno monograms", presumably bc of the last coin, which, despite its look in the listing pic, turned out to be a very nice Zenonis! Ob: bust R, headdress, AZEN-(ONIS); Re: monogram of Zenonis, type-1?. Technically a Basiliscus, a ruler I was missing. Having a little trouble with the RIC number, which lists 2 numbers for this type & I can not figure out what the diff btw them is. Still saving up for RIC-X. If anybody knows, I would very much appreciate you cluing me in. Thanks. I trust this seller to not knowingly sell fakes, though, like some others listed here, will occasionally sell coins with artificial patina that I seriously doubt he applies himself. He's a good guy. I'll probably post a pic of the "Vandalic" coins too at some pt.
Yeah, I think his name is Andre Cichos. I've bought some coins from him as well. Genuine material, no issues.
I've purchased quite a few coins from him - very good. One coin of Valens ended up being fake. I got a quick refund with no issues - he did not want the coin back. I do not believe this was intentional.
Great stuff from Anna Kimelova The closing of the mint at Sirmium in late 364 or very early 365: An unlisted variation of the third officina at Rome for Valentinian in 366-7: And from Andre Cichos, who was trusting enough to post the coins before I paid for them: Early Arcadius from Constantinople February to August 383: Particularly rare issue for Bohemond IV of Antioch ca. early 1200s: