New gold ancient, I'm never gonna finish the year of the four emperors

I visited the San Jose coin show this Friday, with the express goal of purchasing Galba or Otho, or hopefully both! After hours of searching, I was not able to find the correct coin for the correct price. I did happen upon a really reasonably priced Phocas Solidus. So for just about $400, I've added the second gold ancient to my collection. My main reasons for purchasing this were;
- It is a beautiful coin, with a nice and sharp portrait of the emperor.
- Phocas is infamous for just how terrible of an emperor he was, and that kinda adds some interest to me regarding coins of Phocas.
- It's cheap ancient gold.
- I didn't want to leave the show empty-handed.
On the downside, I've spent quite a bit at the show on this and quite a few other coins, so that means it's gonna be another month or two before I try taking a stab at Galba and/or Otho.

Anyways, here's my new coin


Phocas, AV Solidus
607-609 CE, Constantinople mint
20.5mm, 4.46 grams
Obverse: DN FOCAS PERP AVG
Reverse: VICTORIA AVGVS, CONOB in exergue
SB 620
Video of the coin;

 

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It reminds me of my first gold ancient (E not S). Mine was only $115 but melt was lower in 1992. $230 give or take melt value now? Is this one of my better coin investments??? Doubled in only 39 years?

 

roman, I think you made a good buy for the money . Prices for even the most common Byzantine gold coins have been escalating the last couple of years. The coin pictured below (the same type & officina as the coin Doug posted) cost me $660.00 about 2 1/2 years ago.


Five days ago the coin pictured below sold at a Heritage auction for $1,140.00 !





Most of the gold coinage of Phocas is very crude . There was a vast improvement in quality by the succeeding emperor Heraclius, as the coin below shows .

 

This is my only solidus of Phocas. I paid well above the estimated value at a CNG auction for it (of course they place their estimates at low prices). I agree about the price of Byzantine gold rising. But $400 is a great price for that coin!

 

...it is a wise person who can change their mind

 

That's a good price. I dropped $700 for a nomisma of Constantine IX. I also have a Theo II which was $1200.

 

That's a good price. I dropped $700 for a nomisma of Constantine IX. I also have a Theo II which was $1200.

 

Great buy, @roman99! My solidi of Arcadius and Honorius (my only two ancient gold coins) were both around $1,000 at retail, and it took me quite a while to find examples in decent condition for that low a price. I do think that the earlier solidi (4th century and early 5th century) tend to be more expensive in general than many of the later ones -- perhaps because they still look more like "Roman" than "Byzantine" coins. But they're still no more than one-third or so as expensive as the cheapest aurei, which seem to be mediocre aurei of Nero for whatever reason. Barring some unexpectedly massive influx of cash (lottery win; inheritance from unknown relative; etc.!), I don't think aurei are in my collecting future.

 

Nice!

I also made a completely unplanned Phocas purchase as well a couple years ago - couldn't pass up the slightly-more-realistic-than-usual portrait!


I think I paid under melt (at today's prices) for this one - Can't beat that for 1400 year old gold!

 

A consular solidus of Phocas.
Paid $525 for this almost 30 years ago. I would be a bit more picky today, about the die rust around the cross on the obverse, (or perhaps the cross is bursting into flame because of Phocas’ wicked nature.)

 

A great purchase, @roman99.

 

I think you did very well, @roman99.