Recent auction wins, anyone?

I bid on six: two ancients and four world coins in Goldberg’s Auction #126.

Won both ancients and two of the world coins.

I’m pretty stoked about the ancients, actually. Will post ‘em later, when I’m not on my phone.

Update: results in Post #8.

 

One of the ancients, albeit small, is a yellowish-orange color.

The other is big and bronze.

 

I dunno as much about the ancients, but in the world stuff, the estimates were way low.

 

Lot 700 is my first Celtic coin! For a year or so, I've had a hankering for one of those little gold horsies, but the full staters were out of my reach. This one is just a quarter-stater, so it'll be a tiny thing, but considering what I've seen of the retail asking prices of other quarter-staters on MA-Shops, I think I did OK here. The horse is reasonably well defined and properly equine looking, though I like the abstract horsies too. Bonus: I've got a famous name here, since Cunobelin was of course mentioned in Shakespeare's plays, by the name "Cymbeline", as many of you know.



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Lot 813 is a handsome Hadrian sestertius. The win on this one salves my long and chronic seller's remorse over my former one, which I got from @AncientJoe and later swapped to @Aethelred. The portrait on the former coin was absolutely stunning in my opinion, and its museum pedigree was cool. This new addition below is not quite the equal of the former coin, but I do like it a lot. It has a nice portrait on it, and I actually like the reverse design a tiny bit more. What's more, per the note in the Goldberg's listing below, this piece has prior provenance to CNG Auction 209, Lot 360, on April 22, 2009, in which it sold for $575 plus fees. I'm now in it for $440 plus fees, so that feels pretty good.





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Lot 908 was a handsome gold coin of King Farouk of Egypt, which I just fell short on. I already have a coin of Farouk, but thought I might try to upgrade to gold. Alas, not this time. What makes Farouk so interesting? He was a famous coin collector!



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Lot 1203 is a handsome Japanese "dragon" yen. I previously owned a PCGS AU58, sold it, and missed having one. Now I've upgraded to a Mint State example. Interestingly, this and my former example are very similar in appearance.



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Lot 1209 was a very early Spanish Colonial Mexican 2-reales piece, struck at Mexico City, which was the first mint in the Americas. This coin was struck not long after its founding. I find these interesting and liked the contrasting dark toning on this piece, but I didn't fight hard enough for it.




But speaking of Spanish colonial coins...
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Lot 1214 is a very handsome example of the famous Spanish Colonial (Mexico City) 8-reales "Pillar dollar" or "piece of eight", which is legendary in pirate lore and the history of the early American colonies. It was the Founding Fathers' inspiration for the United States dollar, and as such is usually the first coin illustrated in the Red Book of US coins. I previously owned a PCGS AU50 example. Though my former example was handsome, I like the contrasting toning on this coin better- it has the look I was after. I don't mind that as an NGC EF40, it's technically ten grade points lower than my old one. I think the eye appeal is superior, and it's an earlier date, too.


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Here's the summary. Hope you enjoyed this post.

 

Whoo! Full stater… and look at the strike! Impressive!

 

I made another recent Spanish Colonial coin purchase at fixed price from @Aethelred, and then there’s the US stuff, which I won’t go into here.