What is the most you've ever spent on an ancient coin?

Including fees and converted into $, the coin I paid most for is this Julia Titi dupondius - $154


I wanted a coin with her portrait and I am not sure it was the best deal in human history, but you can't get much better unless you find it at a seller who has no clue about ancient coins. And this is very unlikely.
This is the only coin I have where I paid more than $150

Number 2 is a coin I wanted a lot.


Including fees $123.

A few times I was willing to pay $300 for some coins. Lost every time. I do not regret any of them, as the price I was willing to offer was my maximum and for me, it was fair. Paying 10-20% more than my intended price for a coin is OK if it doesn't become a habit and I want the coin. Paying 50% more is not something I intend to do (especially for coins over 100-150 EUR) as it would simply mean I will not be happy about the coin itself.

For my tastes and indulgence, there are still many coins available and interesting in the 20-100 EUR range.

 

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For me it's $50-150, but I'm quite new and planning to get something in the $300-600 range like a nice owl, or a stater I like!

 

$4,000 for a silly decanummium of Anastasius I. 20mm, 4.39 g, 6h. Constantinople mint. Struck 512-517. D N ANASTA SIVS PP AV, pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Constantinopolis seated facing slightly left on throne, holding globus cruciger; I to left, star to right; CON. DOC -; MIBE 21; SB 28A.

 

The funny thing is that price and joy-factor are not that much correlated - at least in my experience. As a student in London, I collected Russian dengas of the 16th and 17th century, i.e. coins that could be bought at around 5 to 10 pounds at the time. I enjoyed collecting these just as much as I enjoyed collecting migration age rarities later on.

 

530 € including fees
EARLY MEDIEVAL, Anonymous. Denomination: AR Sceatta (Hexagon or 'Herstal' type), minted: Frisia Magna or Austrasia; 715-750
Obv: Cross within Star of David-like design; pellets around
Rev: Central cross with radiating lines around and cross above
Weight: 0.98g; Ø:13mm. Catalogue: Abramson 109.10; Metcalf p. 256–8; SCBI –; EMC 2001.1261; North –; SCBC 796.. Provenance: Ex Heritage Auctions Europe, 18-11-2020, lot 5811; acq.: 11-2020

€430 or so

 

A very pertinent observation.
I was just looking at my personal catalogue - the coins I like the most and I was happiest when winning them are not mandatory expensive. But I wanted them and I like them. I heard a guy saying that all collectors are just big children, always getting new toys. An expensive toy doesn't necessarily mean you'll play with it more than with a cheap one.

And I mean absolutely no disrespect for truly rare and/or coins in exceptional condition and of course for people with very valuable collections.

 

The most I have ever paid for ancient coins was for a Gordian I and Gordian II denarii.

 

15 years ago, the dollar was relatively weak towards the kroner, arond 5 NOK for a dollar. It’s usually been between 7.5 and 9. At that time I spent 1500$ on a coin. I have rarely gone over 1k since then.

The last years, I have made a collage of the coins I have bought, ranging them for how much joy they bring me. This has been educational:
1. I repeatedly get little joy from the «snack» coins that I pick up at auctions because they are cheap. That money is better saved up for more important coins.
2. The coins that bring the most joy, again and again, are coin types that I have been watching for a long time. Those, plus being able to add a new emperor to the Imperial Silver Collection bring the most joy.
3. Many times, a real joyer will outrank a coin that cost far more. Then again, the top 10 mostly consists of expensive coins.


Considering that I have bought this many coins so far this year at least tells me I spend quite a lot of my money on coins.....

 

I have always found it a bit disturbing that the collectors on CT that I would most like to meet in person are the same as those located furthest from me. Z leads that pack. While I have not run a bar graph on my holdings I find most interesting his concept core collection which I find most applicable to my coins. I have three sets of coins. First are coins I bought because I really wanted them. Second are coins I bought because I thought I should since they fit my specialties and I did not have that die. Third are the coins I bought for reasons not all that clear to me but that included things I bought to illustrate my old website and things I bought because I did not have one and was at a show where there was nothing I wanted more available. This last group has in part been donated/traded/sold over the last couple decades. I consider my core collection to be the first group augmented by a few coins that managed to climb to higher status when I learned more about them after they were purchased.

I can not answer the original question simply because my favorite and most expensive purchase was a $7k+ group lot from Triton XX (AK Collection) which may have averaged out to $350 a coin but included a number worth ~$100 and a few I considered worth ~$1k. Most of you would not pay that level for them. Examples:


I only spent over $1k on an individual coin once and later sold it (for no profit) when I downgraded to a cheaper specimen that I found more interesting even though it was not 'market popular'. I don't recall where the first coin went or know if it was resold by the buyer. This is the replacement which I downgraded to because I like the doublestriking even though it was little more than half the price and more worn.


I propose a new statistic which I will term "Satisfaction Quotient". That would be a number formed comparing the warm and fuzzy feeling I get from owning the coin and the purchase price. I do not 'value' coins according to how much they cost or how much they might bring at auction. These are what I consider 'die with' coins which may lose 'value' when the only person who cares passes away. Since I am that person, that is no problem to me. Examples are below. I have explained them all here many times and you do not need to know which were single digit and which were three digit costs. To me, they are priceless.




Which of your coins have the highest 'SQ'?

 

This is easily my most expensive coin, though from what I can tell also my best bargain. Interestingly, I went back to my spreadsheet and found that I have three other coins where I paid over $1k. Two are also among the best bargains I've found. Maybe I should use this data to convince my wife to let me spend more on coins.

Egypt, Achaemenid Province. Sabakes, satrap, AR Tetradrachm. Circa 340-333 BC.​

16.61g, 25mm, 9h.
Head of Athena to right, wearing earring, necklace, and crested Attic helmet decorated with three olive leaves over visor and a spiral palmette on the bowl / Owl standing to right with head facing, olive sprig with berry and crescent in upper left field; uncertain letters to left, "Sabakes symbol" and SWYK (in Aramaic) to right.
Van Alfen Type III, 24-34 var. (O11/R- [unlisted rev. die]); Nicolet-Pierre, Monnaies 18-26 (same obv. die); SNG Copenhagen 4 var. (no letters on left of rev.); BMC 265 var. (same).
Ex Roma​

 

I once went a few dollars north of $1000.-, only once, for an irresistible Demetrios Poliorketes tetradrachm. It's by far the most I ever spent on a coin. (Usually, my comfort zone is somewhere between 50-300, everything above invariably involves a long uphill battle with reality.) When I bought this Demetrios coin I even secretly entertained the hope of receiving a year's worth of feature auctions catalogs from auction houses vying for my upmarket attention. Great ROI, right? Lovely coin, paper catalogs. Needless to say, the catalogs never materialized... Seeing the distribution of the OP's graph I'm beginning to understand why. Still, it's a great coin and I'm happy to have it in my collection.

So, bottom-feeding it is ...
But, at a lowly 19 Euro for this one last weekend, at least I'm a happy bottom-feeder:


Chios. Hemidrachm.

+1

 

..i hate it when that happens...

 

@panzerman ?

 

But, it is a remarkably interesting and unusual Byzantine type, extremely rare, and the finest known. It is the one on labarum.info . Anyone who collects Byzantine coins recognizes it as super special!

 

And Warren, you know I have the half follis as well. Refrained from bidding on the follis in Triton XIX, lot 688. Looking back, I probably should not have feared Susan's wrath and gone after it....but at least I am still alive....

 

Most expensive 945 GBP = 1235 USD



These 3 around 1000 USD

 

Nice Seleukos tet! A lovely specimen.

 

Sorry, I was out walking my dog......
I have a few....
AV Aureus ND 305AD (Ticinum Mint) Constantius I Chlorus R-4 pd. 9K Swiss Fr. in 2005 Tkalec AG
AV Aureus ND 221AD Roma Mint Elagalabus pd 7KUS CNG Triton II
AV Aureus ND 230AD Roma Mint Severus Alexander pd. 5KUS 1997 Harlan Burke
AV Aureus ND 286AD Cyzius Mint Diocletian paid 10K Triton I 1998
AV Aureus ND 244AD Roma Mint Gordian III 7K Triton III

 

€ 450,000

 

,,what was it?