Featured In Appreciation of Large Lots - Not just crusty LRBs

Oh yeah, thanks! I'm guessing they know exactly how rare these coins are, but are still including them in group lots anyway. Otherwise, there's no way they'd have slipped past a Didius Julianus, Galerius Antoninus and Vaballathus as Augustus

 

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Not always. I purchased some incredible rarities in group lots of major auctions, including CNG, Roma and Goldberg. Often the volume is just too high to examine every coin and after all they want their % and don't really care if the coin brings few extra $ as individual lot but requires more work to list separately.

 

My two best pickups from large lots:

Commodus denarius.
From a 100-junk coin lot at a cost of $0.81 per coin.


Adramyteion AE12.
From a Roma lot at $12.50 per coin.

 

Oh, yes. Mostly Greek lots this time, including some silver. Also, I won this As of Sextus Pompey.

The group lots:
6 Greek and Roman Provincial Coins
4 Greek Æ Coins
15 Greek AR Fractions
10 Greek AR Coins

Since I'm still pretty new to Greek coins, tracking down IDs for all these should keep me occupied over the summer.

 

I had assumed that these lots were part of the same consignment, and the consignor for whatever reason wagered that including a VF Didius Julianus sestertius in a group lot would net them more than selling it individually. I don't think I agree with their logic, but again I've made some risky groupings in the past - sometimes it works out in my favor, other times it doesn't.

At any rate, I do hope that whoever is in charge of sifting through consignments at Roma wouldn't miss something as important as a rare emperor.

 

Its an important point. I have lost on group lots as well, mainly by overpaying. Its not a risk free enterprise. Its great for those who wish to either to break these up and resell some, or idiots like me who just wish to own lots of coins.

 

The point I am missing is not that they are selling low grade examples of rarities as a lot but that they see it as in their interest to do so and not mention in the description what they were doing. Did more people bid on the group because they were chasing a sleeper? If they had said "10 coins of which half are things too rare to be sold this way" would people have boycotted the sale? Were they sold as a group because the house was not comfortable with all being genuine (untooled, not casts) and needed the 'as is' protection that they get from group lots? Did grandpa have a junk bin where he kept things he was ashamed to show his peer group who only collected gems and the family not know what was there? Was the house planning on buying them if it appeared they were going to be sold as common junk? How do you explain this?

 

I'm not pretending to be privvy to the inner workings of how major auction houses sort through their lots, but I have been buying rarities from auction houses for a few years now. If I had the discipline to part with everything I said I was going to part with, it would be a reasonably profitable venture, even getting hit with a 20% markup from the seller and eBay's 14% cut on the way out. When an auctioneer is going through a lot that they've been instructed to sell wholesale, I really don't know how many of them (if any) will call the consignor up and say "Woah buddy this is a $300 coin - are you sure you want to sell it like this?" Maybe because they have a guaranteed profit margin they simply don't care?

I've noticed some trends between auction houses -

Leu tends to take time to arrange the coins carefully to maximize the sale potential - placing coins carefully to hide culls or imperfections etc. I got burned by this a couple of times before I learned my lesson.

CNG is the total opposite - they seem to have a policy of only photographing all of the coins if the lot has 10 or fewer coins, otherwise they choose a few at random and dump them out haphazardly. More than a few times "and others" meant $100+ coins that weren't photographed or even mentioned. I'm usually pleasantly surprised.

Roma and Naumann take good, high-resolution photos of both sides unless there's 30+ coins in a lot. Rarely do I get a surprise (good or bad) from them.

All three have included incredible and rare coins in group lots - conversely I rarely find anything good in the more "budget" auction houses' group lots, e.g. Savoca Blue, Zeus/Ares/Papillon/Demos etc. That makes me think that some houses do at least sift through the consigned large lots.

 

I bought a couple of group lots from Roma before and, going back through earlier auctions, found that all the coins were originally listed individually but did not sell. This isn't always the case, of course, but that's what happened with the coins from the William Stancomb collection.

At other times I've noticed several large lots "from a European dealer." I imagine some dealer was just getting out of the business and liquidating his/her inventory. The nicest coins were probably listed individually, all the lower grade ones were lumped together in group lots.

 

Naumann does the same. Personally my favorite lots are from a person's collection. I bought two of such lots at Stacks 4 months ago. It is really cool, with documentation where he bought them. One coin was from Frank Kovacs sale number 1, lot 35 or something. Many of the coins had 1970's provenence, which makes them more interesting. Between the two lots its was about 200 ancient greek bronzes.

 

Oh, and speaking of unsolds being offered as a lot...

Picked these up from a previous Roma auction to fill the gaping hole I was feeling from having zero Carthaginian coins; one of the rare few lots that I bought 100% to keep and not to cherry pick. All are unsolds from the "Amilcare collection" in Roma e69

Proper Carthage AE17 Tanit/Horse


AE16


AE 19 Tanit / head of horse


Same, but with punic "M"


Carthage-occupied Sicily Triptolemus / Horse


2nd Punic War local Iberian issue Head right / Palm


Non-Carthage

Iberia, Gades Herakles / Fish AE Quadrans Punic inscription PLT HGDR


Sicily, uncertain AE Onkia Female head / Octopus

 

Auctiones lot arrived today! As suspected -

Cleopatra AE 80 Drachmae - beat to hell, but the portrait is unmistakable - a desirable coin in any identifiable grade!


The second one however I'm not sure is even from Alexandria...


I don't think that's Cleopatra, although I am getting strong Livia vibes - Any guesses?

 

Hi @Finn235,



- Broucheion

 

I'm getting strong Livia vibes too. The fabric looks Alexandrian to me. Is it around 7-8g and 21mm? That would fit RPC 5008, the eagle issue. Here's your reverse, image rotated a bit, next to the Paris example:


If that's right, it's probably worth more than the Cleo...

 

I was trying to figure out if it was the Athena type, but I think you might be on to something! Will have to double check diameter and weight to see if it's within range.

 

Yes, I've wondered what's going on with CNG. They offer group lots, in collection areas of interest to me, but don't photograph all the coins or show both sides - a task that can be achieved in all of 30 seconds. Last time I asked CNG about this, they gave some lame excuse about not having the right photographic equipment but they're working on it!

I can't bid on what I can't see.

 

It's been a double edged sword. On the high end "and others" have included some very worthwhile coins that honestly would have made good individual consignments. Some examples of coins that were deemed unfit for photographing in their lot photos:



On the other hand, I've bought lots from them where "and world coins" included literal pocket change that I put in my change jar - like circulated clad half dollars and quarters. Most recent lot included a cull cupronickel USSR 20 kopek, completely corroded and worthless. It's a bit of a gamble.

 

Eagerly awaiting a surprise win from Stack's in the mail tomorrow! Came out to a little under $8 per coin. Lots of goodies, but I think the main draw should be pretty obvious

 

Good luck! I am waiting for my own Stack's group lot, of 158 city coins. They had a picture of a 20 coins pile to illustrate it, and I didn't have a chance to inspect the lot personally, so I had to extrapolate. Out of 20 pictured coins there are 3 I definitely need, 3-5 more I might need and about 10 I definitely don't. So, I assumed there will be 20-50 coins I can add to my city coins collection, and the rest maybe keep for trade. I just hope they didn't pick the best ones for the picture...

 

Nice lot! Always a fun feeling when you find a lot where a number of the coins are ones that you need for the collection.

I put in a lot of bids on that auction, mostly on group lots, and my bids were mostly 1/3 - 1/2 of the hammer. Honestly expected to come away empty handed, since unless I spot a coin I absolutely *must* have, my goal is to win lots for approximately half of what I think I can sell them for.