Challenge; post attractive, sub-$300 coin/s

I love those antiochian tetradrachms too and they can come so cheap! The following two both did cost me around 20 € each:
Emperor Philipp I. - Tetradrachm - Antioch mint

Emperor Trebonianus Gallus - Tetradrachm - Antioch mint

 

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Here are a few of mine from the good ol' days, when coins were bought by collectors:

Around 200, if memory serves:

200 (give or take):


65

 

A Decius tetradrachm, it arrived on Friday. Not many coins from my collection are better preserved.


35 EUR

45 EUR





88 EUR (and for this I think I overpaid, judging after my usual strategy)





Those would need new photos - bought in a lot of 4 coins - 20 EUR/coin



47 EUR



42 EUR



47 EUR

All those include fees.

 

Scored from ebay several years ago too and for some reason went unnoticed. Less than $100 at the time.


Aelius (136 - 138 A.D.)
AR Denarius
O: L AELIVS CAESAR, bare head right.
R: TR POT COS II, Felicitas standing left, caduceus in left, cornucopia in right.
Rome Mint, 137 A.D.
3.16g
18mm
SRCV II 3973, RIC II Hadrian 430, RSC II 50, BMCRE III Hadrian 969


$45

Antoninus Pius (138 - 161 A.D.)
Struck Under Marcus Aurelius
O: DIVVS ANTONINVS, bare draped bust right.
R: CONSECRATIO, funeral pyre of four tiers with quadriga on top.
Rome Mint, 161 - 180 A.D.
18mm
3.2g
RIC III M. Aurelius 438

$150 & one of my first ancients.

Commodus (177 - 192 A.D.)
AR Denarius
189 A.D
O: M COMM ANT P FEL AVG BRIT, Laureate head right.
R: PIETATI SENATVS, CVPP, Commodus standing right, holding roll, clasping hands with senator standing left, holding scepter.
Rome mint
RIC III 194 cor, RSC II 408
3.649g

 

I don't know what the inflationary equivalent would be but my excellent Magnus Maximus siliqua cost $125 in 1994 and my XF Arcadius was around the same amount.

 

Great idea @nerosmyfavorite68 ! Some lovely coins here!

These are dealer pics of some of the less-expensive coins I've bought. This Trajan denarius cost about $90 I think? I love the bust.

Then there is this Vespasian denarius I just posted in the other thread. Hammer price of $110:


Augustus denarius for $265:


Of course you can't beat this 1,000 year-old Chinese coin for $15:



I've only spent $300+ a few times on coins. Most of mine are sub-$150.

 

There's definitely some interesting coins in the thread.

I have yet to pick up an Aelius. Neat, Mat.

I forgot about a couple of other recent ones:

This is an exquisite example of a long-wanted type, the S. 882 version of Heraclius. From the supplied earlier tag, CT members helped supply the interesting previous history of the coin. The somewhat terse description probably allowed the coin to hang around long enough for me to notice it.



BYZANTINE: Heraclius, AD 610-641, Syracuse, AE Follis (32mm, 13.28g)

The second was a throw-in when I ordered a worn Heraclius Seleucia. I ended up liking this one the best of the two.



Title: Trebonianus Gallus (AD 251-253) Æ Sestertius / Votive
Attribution: RIC IV 127a Rome
Date: AD 251
Obverse: [IMP CAES C VIBIVS] TREBONIANVS GAL[LVS AVG], laureate draped cuirassed bust of Trebonianus Gallus right
Reverse: VOTIS / DECENNA / LIBVS / S C in laurel wreath
Size: 27.24 mm
Weight: 14.9 grams
Description: VF with pleasing jade green patina. Ex Pegasi Coins (old blue tag). Ex Jeff Clark VOTA collection.

 

That is a beautiful looking Heraclius overstrike!

 

Thanks! The patina made it the one for me.

Ignoramus Maximus makes a good point by his post, one can find really good Sassanians for not a lot of money. IM did well to snag all of those coins.

 

My Phillip I, bought in a sale lot with two other coins, this one being the best condition. Whole lot was $150, with this coin and it's attractive peripheral toning I'm sure carrying a large chunk of the price! Came with the old soapbox slab insert it was cracked out of.

 

It is too soon to know if I will die of Covid but it seems certain that my hobby is past the point of being saved by a respirator. I do wonder how the current Russian/Ukraine situation will effect the coin market or even the legality of it when the anti-collector crowd starts yelling 'money laundering'. It does bother me that we have people who think $300 is a cheap coin. Of course we see starred MS slabs with LRB's bringing that on occasion so perhaps that is the new threshold. $300 is the new $50? I also regret that what makes a coin worth $300 is so often beauty rather than being interesting. Of course, both beauty and interest is in the eye of the individual. I went back and found the last six coins I bought 2020-22 ranging from $45 to $55 each and None are really all that attractive or close to mint state but I was happy to get them, beautiful or not. I would not trade them for one $300 beauty even though that coin would have better profit potential. All have been posted here before complete with reasons why I got them in most cases. Maybe I need to rephotograph them and make them pretty?

 

I think the current little slab bubble is about to burst. It also doesn't take Nostradamus to predict that the stock market will also go south. Once that goes, I think the non-gold bubble is over.

 

When the coins were bought obviously makes all the difference. In fact, the running theme in my year end list of favorite coins purchased in 2021 was how fugly most of them looked. The COVID era market has certainly not been kind.

I did manage to win this attractive Domitian As for just slightly under $200 last year:


A 2020 buy, this T. Carisius denarius isn't in high grade, but I thought it had a lovely old collection look. It was about $120.


2019 and pre-COVID, about $190 shipped.


2018 were firmly the good old days. The Hadrian denarius was $150 and the Vespasian about $95.



For those interested in what our CT members here were buying in the $300 range between 5-10 years ago, here's an old thread:
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/what-your-budget-buys-300-edition.303233/

I ran a series of these threads at the time (2017) that went from < $20 to up to about $500. Subsequently there were additional threads that covered coins up to $1500.
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/what-your-budget-buys-index-thread.303991/

 

Cool. Mine was a coincidence. I was going to say 200, but then I thought that might not be high enough, so I bumped it up to 3.

 

This Vespasianus was 200 euro.

Julia Domna 95 euros.

Mariniana : 240 euros

Volusianus : 65 euro

The bridge : 180 euro.

 

I always enjoy a low-budget thread. Most of my ancients are sub-$30, so the "attractive" part is often in short supply. Here are a couple of recent ones that I find handsome-ish:

Diadumenian Æ 19
(217-218 A.D.)
Syria, Seleucis & Pieria Antiochia ad Orontem
KAI M O ΔI ANTΩNINOC C Є bare-headed, cuirassed bust right / SC within laurel wreath with five pairs of leaves each side closed by star, Δ above, Є below.
SNG Cop 235; BMC 408.
(4.43 grams / 19 mm)
eBay Mar. 2022 $15.00
Attribution Note: Obverse legend is either:

...ΔIA ANT...
...ΔI ANT...
...Δ ANT...

Attribution follow Wildwinds with ΔI description, although example photos both lack the I. SNG Copenhagan 235; BMC 408; SGI 3017.​

Some uneven patina on this one, but terrific artistry and colors, I think:

Severus Alexander Æ 24
(222-235 A.D.)
Deultum, Thrace
IMP C M AVR SEV ALEXAND AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right /
COL FL PAC D[EVLT], Apollo standing facing, head left, holding branch over altar and resting on lyre set on tripod
(7.65 grams / 24 x 22 mm)
eBay Mar. 2022 $15.00
Attribution:
RPC 695 (temp.); Jurukova, Deultum 94, 138 corr.; Draganov, Deultum 257-61
SNG Deultum 257; Varbanov 2283.​

Countermarks often have extra ugly to 'em, but this one is not too bad, and it is huge (30 mm) and under ten bucks and a bit scarce:

Gordian III Æ 30
Irenopolis-Neronias, Cilicia
CY 192 (242/243 A.D.)
ΑΥΚ ΜΑΝΤω ΓΟΡΔΙΑΝΟϹ, radiate, draped & cuirassed bust right / ƐΙΡΗΝΟΠΟΛƐΙΤωΝ, ЄT BЧP in exergue, Hygieia standing right feeding serpent,
facing Serapis standing left.
(10.02 grams / 30 mm)
eBay Feb. 2022 $9.13
Host Coin Attribution:
RPC VII.2 unassigned 2075; SNG Levante 1622; SNG von Aulock 5596; SNG France 2270.
Countermark Obverse: Monogram in 6 mm circle (EIPH = Eirenopolis), Howgego 616.​

 

I have many sub $300 beauties, but this one is the best for the price.


Domitian
Æ Sestertius, 25.01g
Rome mint, 86 AD
Obv: IMP CAES DOMIT AVG GERM COS XII CENS PER P P; Head of Domitian, laureate, bearded, r., with aegis
Rev: IOVI VICTORI; S C in exergue; Jupiter std. l., with Victory and sceptre
RIC 465 (C2). BMC 373. BNC 396.
Acquired from CGB.fr, June 2021.

$130

 

Here's two of Elagabalus, first one was $140 and the 2nd $280.

Elagabalus, 218-222 A.D., Antioch, Seleucis and Pieria



AR Tetradrachm, struck 218-220 A.D., 25mm 12.02 grams

Obverse: Laureate head of Elagabalus right
AVT K M A ANTONEINOC CEB

Reverse: Eagle standing left, wreath in beak, star between legs, delta epsilon in field
DH MARC EX UPATOC TO B

Reference: Prieur 249A; McAlee 760




AR Denarius, Elagabalus 218-222.

Obverse: Laureate bust of Elagabalus right

Reverse: Baetyl, in quadriga with horses prancing right

 

$13.75 each (including fees). Purchased in 2019 in 3 groups. I still haven't photographed them all individually, so here are 15 of 48 of these BCD Thessaly Duplicate AEs, with his handwritten tags/notes.



CNG EA 455, 89. 10 Coins, Hammer $150.
CNG EA 455, 85. 21 Coins, Hammer $210.
CNG EA 455, 84. 17 Coins, Hammer $190.

When I received them I was blown away by quality and wished I could buy thousands. The patinas (for a few in particular) are among the loveliest I've seen on Greek AE.

Many (most) are easily nice enough to have sold as single lots at CNG. (If only I hadn't been staying away from auctions when CNG was selling BCD Thessaly Duplicate groups of that size. I'm sure they still have some left, but perhaps not tens of 1,000s anymore.)

Most were from Phalanna, which opened a new area of interest for me.

 

Yeah, I kinda cheated, that was my first ancient/ also it came via NFA Auction 1985 Also, I use the stuff that works on lawns/ PAR-III/ DIAZINON/ MERIT=what the Tiger did to T-34s
As far as that "money laundering" is behind the insane auction prices/ I seriously doubt that. In the days of yore, only nobility collected coinage/ as the middle class grew/ more average people (like me) could enjoy the hobby. Fast forward to 2022, millions more will adopt the passion/ esp. from China/ India. My gut feeling, this market will never crash, ditto for real estate. I have a client who purchased their Alta Vista bungalow in 1967 for 16K/ same house sold for 1.2M last year.
Here is Lucilla that I got recently for less then 300....