I'll go big to start: A big ole butt in gold never hurt anyone: Or how about a hyper rare coin to cap off a wonderful series that not many would give a crap about: A warrior king whom, I believe was, the last GREAT Macedonian ruler who deserves at least one AR Tetradrachm in my collection: Anyone else miss big on coins you mightve thought you had a chance at... or just flat out dream coins that have gone up for sale?
Your first example is mine too. I wasn't the underbidder but came close, but ultimately couldn't justify going further. My other "big" lot which I failed to buy in the NAC sale was the Akragas tetradrachm which, in hindsight, wasn't unreasonable but who knows how high the winner would have gone: That said, coins seem to have a way of finding their true owner so perhaps your targets (or nicer examples) will come back around in the future!
Usually I put the coins I want on my watch list. After the auction, I delete the watch list. No point in keeping it. I prefer not to think about what I lost and I concentrate on what I won. And there are good coins every time I usually regret (a little) the ones where I am the underbidder and I prefer to leave the coin thinking there are others coming in the auction. A few times this was a bad decision. But there are still a lot of affordable coins out there. So I prefer to concentrate on what I have and what I will buy
A couple for me. This coin came up on eBay about 3 years ago, and sold for about £40. It's an extremely rare double antoninianus of Carus/Carinus in poor condition. However, it's the only time I've seen it come up for sale (at least at an affordable price). I didn't buy it because I wasn't very experienced at the time, and £40 was waaay out of my budget back then This one came up about 3 months ago in a large lot of about 70 coins on eBay. I am still a bit sore about not winning it, as it is a very nice condition antoninianus of Carausius with his bust left holding spear and shield (although I do now have a very poor condition one with Carausius bust left holding an eagle tipped sceptre). The lot sold for £300, which is a lot of money, but I could probably have made most of it back by reselling the coins in the lot that I didn't want. Look at the detail on that shield... And finally a coin I made a post about recently. Another eBay coin, and an extremely rare antoninianus of Carausius with the four seasons reverse. It sold for £500, but was cleaned up and sold by Roma a few months later for £2400 eBay: Roma: That's quite depressing, so I'll share a few of the bargains I've bought on eBay over the years. 2 Dacia antoniniani of Aurelian. These came in a lot of 100 similar condition coins for £260 in total, and I didn't notice these were in here until I was in the process of listing them on eBay (after keeping the coins I wanted). I've since cleaned most of the green stuff off Barabarous antoninianus of Carausius, she-wolf reverse. It was suggested I contact Sam Moorhead of the British Museum, and he said he'd illustrate it in his upcoming RIC. £20 on eBay My most recent bargain, an extremely rare follis of Decentius. £12 on eBay. I'm currently selling it at Roma, as it doesn't fit in my collection (but I'll use the money to buy coins that I do actually want lol). It's this one if anyone's interested And probably my favourite (and the "best" coin in my collection) is this antoninianus of Vabalathus, sole reign. It cost £30 on eBay
When this light series Sestertius went into 5 figures it got quite obvious I was most likely bidding vs "Clio". I did push it a few increments more as I felt confident I wouldn't win it anyways, if you can't beat them at least make them pay for it.
As I mentioned, I'm new to ancient coin collecting. When I first started, I made a list of three coins that I had to have: - An Athenian tet. Every auction has about a hundred of these, so I accomplished that quickly. - An Olbian dolphin, because coins shaped like dolphins was the coolest thing. I seriously overpaid at my very first auction, but I got one. - An Alexander the Great lifetime tet. The Alexander tet proved a challenge. Recently, there have been a lot at auction, but several months ago decent quality ones were hard to find. Participating in my first Savoca silver auction, I put what I thought was a serious bid. I double checked a few minutes before the coin came up and my max bid was still over twice the current, so, since I was busy doing something at the time, I didn't keep an eye on it. I won't make that mistake again... I was foolish and didn't raise my bid, and someone bid it up to just one increment over mine and got it! Oh, I was fuming over my stupidity. I was so upset that I impulse bought - picking up a Thebes stater from Forum for a decent price to cheer myself up. It took some time for me to finally locate another one. Below is the one I ended up purchasing. The obverse is of similar quality to that original coin, though the reverse isn't as sharp. I picked it up for less than half of my max bid on the previous coin. Both are from the Babylon mint around the time Alexander died. Of course, I lost out on another lifetime tet in between. That one was Stacks Bowers, and I put a far higher bid than my previous one, but the coin went for over twice my bid. In my opinion the buyer seriously overpaid. There is one other coin I'm still fretting about. It's been a high priority for me for some time, and I was outbid a week before the auction started. Because I was participating in several other auctions and I was worried about the expense, I didn't raise my bid. Whoever won the coin got a pretty good deal, because no one bid again. However, I'm not going to mention the type because I have every intention of going for the type again, and now that there are only four coins on my list I can be more aggressive.
I do not normally discuss coins that I did not get and out of the total of some 17 coins that I was interested in offered in the June Auctions I was the underbidder in only 4. Three of these were denarii of Vespasian from the Viggo Collection offered by NAC. I do not know but perhaps one of the Flavian collectors on CT won one or more of these hence my reluctance to steal their thunder. One coin I did sleep through but I would have been nowhere near bidding on what that coin actually hammered for. However I did get this coin Alexander III Ar Tetradrachm Amphipolis 332-326 BC. Obv Beardless head of Herakles right in lion skin headdress. Rv. Zeus Aetophoros seated left. In left field prow. Price 4 Troxell Group A1 This coin is one of the first coins minted in the name of Alexander from the mint of Amphipolis. Alexander did not initiate the coinage with his name and types until after the Battle of Issus November 333. The coinage was initiated in Tarsus and remained localized to this region as Alexander besieged Tyre and Gaza and conquered Egypt. In Macedon Antipater continued minting coins with the name and types of Philip II. However Spartan efforts to reestablish their hegemony in the Peloponnese prompted Antipater to ask for help from Alexander which he duly gave in the form of gold and silver. Antipater used this to hire a vast army of mercenaries which was paid with this new coinage. This coin actually has the same symbol A prow found on the last issues of coins minted in the name of Philip II Courtesy of CNG THIS IS NOT MY COIN
The one I regret most this year is a modest coin. I was watching the coin and pushed the bid on the wrong lot in the May Kunker auction. I wanted lot 91. It is not especially rare, but I do not have one. Unfortunately I bid on and won lots 90 - and 95 Most of the other coins I wanted but did not win were financial decisions.
This Northern Arabia imitation tetradrachm would have been a significant addition to the collection, but: 1) the lot was part of a live floor auction - terrible luck there as an Internet bidder and 2) the hammer price, while not unreasonable, would have been a burden financially with the 20 percent buyer's fee and the weak US dollar exchange rate. So, I had to stop bidding during the pre-floor auction bidding, assuming that the winning bidder would very like have pushed the hammer price even higher. Oh well - you get up, brush yourself off, and join in the action again...
Recently I bid on this type, did not win...though it would be fun to have a coin with my astrological sign This is a superior example.... AE Drachm, 27.76g. 34mm. Dated year 8= 144/145 A.D. Zodiac series, Mars in Aries. Laureate head of Antoninus Pius to right. Rev. Ram leaping to right with head reverted; helmeted and cuirassed bust of Ares(Mars) and star above. Dattari 2958(this coin). Geissen 1898. Fine brown patina. Rare and among the finest known examples. This coin was photographed in the 1901 edition of the Dattari collection to illustrate the Zodiac type; very few coins were illustrated from the massive collection in the original edition to illustrate the types. Provenance/Pedigree: Ex: Dattari collection, 2958 and plate XXVI in the 1901 edition. Ex: Münz Zentrum, Köln collection and published, Ludwig Lehr, "Beschreibung und Bedeutung der zwölf Tierkreiszeichen auf den Grossbronzen von Alexandria unter der Regierung des Antoninus Pius" in Helvetische Münzenzeitung, Thun 1971, page 7(reverse illustrated). about Extremely Fine $28,000.00
