Hello everyone, Last week I was visiting a friends house with some of my coin friends. We got to look through a bucket of foreign coins and pick out whatever we want (We had a deal that we'd pay a fair price for anything that was expensive). This is one of the coins I picked out. I am not a huge collector of ancients but this Byzantine bronze portrait of Christ stood out to me so I took it. From what I can gather from google, it is a Byzantine bronze follis (it is the size of a US large cent). I have no idea what this is worth though. Ebay comps show recent prices from $6 all the way up to $600+. How much is this thing really worth and why would it sell for over $100 when other comps are $30? Would really appreciate some help to understand what I have. Thanks, Chris
That looks like a Class A2 anonymous Byzantine follis. They are, for the most part, rather inexpensive, and should cost between $6 and $50. $600 ones would be ones in superior states of preservation or some rare variant. Byzantine silver coins would sometimes have a similar design, so maybe you're seeing those at that higher end.
It is an anonymous follis class A2, variant 47. You can see the anonymous folles and the class A2 here (Ctrl+ F and look for "Anonymous"): http://numiswiki.org/ Price is driven by condition and type. This variant is quite common and rarely fits the flan. I purchased the coin below last year for 7 USD, excluding shipping. Yours is not worth more than 10 USD.
Chris, Well struck high-grade examples of A2 Anonymous nummi can be very pricy. The example pictured below sold at CNG Coin Shop for $875.00. Byzantine Empire, Anonymous Nummus, Type A2, circa AD 1020-1063, 26 mm, 10.63 gm, 6 h. NGC MS, Strike 5/5, Surface 4/5. CNG Coin Shop 523687. The coin pictured below I bought at auction several years ago for $434.00. Byzantine Empire, Anonymous Nummus, Type A2, circa AD 1020-1063, 29 mm, 10.48 gm, 6 h. Sear 1813. NGC MS*, Strike 5/5, Surface 5/5.
Hey Yolo.... I too was once smitten by the portrait of Christ on these old Byzantine folles. I have purchased a handful of them since and $35.00 to $50.00 seems about the going rate.
Pricing of these coins is really all over the place. I believe the catadc and YoloBagels coins are better than quoted here because they have facial details. Coins in the $10 bracket tend to have flat faces or other faults. The one below appealed to me for the style of the letters A and the way the flan was distorted by the hole. Otherwise I would not have paid the $5 the seller asked for it. How do we tell where between the $5 and $1000+ one might bring? Imagine the coins shown above by AlKowsky but with better centering and smooth edges and well as the perfect surfaces and pleasing color. Now imagine a big sale attended by two wealthy collectors both intent on owning the finest Christ portrait coin. The sky is the limit. The holed coin I showed was in a bucket of junk coins in a LCS in Dayton, Ohio, with many less appealing coins of this type that the regular patrons of the shop considered worthless. Most would not have paid $1 even for a thousand year old coin showing Christ. I suggested that the dealer pull out the Christ types and sell them identified as such in the upcoming Christmas season as 'stocking stuffers'. In that way an unsellable $1 coin might bring $10. All coins, ancients included, are priced by a complex combination of the coin, the demand and the situation of the sale. This is the hobby as we know it.
I have several for which I paid between $80 and $135 each. Cost seems to be driven by the wear on Christ's face, particularly the condition of the nose and eyes. Ones where the nose is in pristine condition can fetch high prices, as mentioned above by Al and Doug.
Thank you everyone for your help! Then again I wasn't looking to flip it as I really like the coin. I don't often get the opportunity to buy ancient coins in real life too much, so it's appealing when I run into a nice but affordable example like this. Thank you again for helping me ID and value it!
