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

That's a nice example of the type! I've been after one of those for a long time and I either underbid or they go for crazy money. Someday I'll win one, but I think for this type, patience and persistence will be the key.

 

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Here are my top 3 most expensive in descending order. Though I think the Syracuse Tetradrachm would likely be the most valuable if these were to go to auction.

 

Most of what I collect 12th century Eastern Roman coins fall up to $500, I do have several beyond that and two that broke the $1500 mark.

This is a rare Thessalonica minted Hyperpyron of Manuel Comnenus , It came with a cert from David Sear who also graded it aEF . The main differences on this coin vs the Constantinople issue, is the die is slightly smaller, the coin is a bit more concaved and the emperors Globus Cruiciger has a plain cross on it.

Thessalonica Mint
Sear 1971 / DOC 1f
Gold, 4.52 grams, 29 mm
ACCS certification 48NO/B/D/OD

As I try to finish off the century I just have the higher cost ones left, Several Alexius ( All hard to get) , a couple of rare Manuel Electrum Aspron trachea and a Hyperpyron for Andronicus ( I am very weary of forgeries here.) and Alexius III Hyperpyron. Less than 10 coins I am just waiting for them to come to market.

 

And don't forget group lots. There can be some real finds in some of these, if one knows what to look for. As an added bonus, the coins in a group lot generally are not described in any detail, so the real research must be done by the collector, which can be a very rewarding and informative undertaking indeed!

 

I have my purchases on excel, so whipped up a quick graph, definitely my tastes are getting expensive recently!
Edited with the trendline

 

I imagine that if you added a trend line to the graph, the upward direction would be even more pronounced.

 

I wish I had known. If I were a bettor I would have lost in the belief that I was the only one here who collects moss. Now that I am not buying coins very often I am spending more time and money on things like film for my digital camera and model fees from my friends in the yard. This moss was from this week. We have several species that will do better when we kill all that nasty old grass. If I remember, tomorrow I will take some with a coin in it for scale.

It bothers me a bit that a coin this popular usually gets discussed with regards to how much it cost and how high it graded. I have a question I have not seen discussed. The two daggars have very different handles. Is this in some way significant. Was Brutus known as a user of a certain style blade? Does anyone care? Don't answer that. Today I watched the latest Aaron Berk podcast (#8) where he mentioned and showed more about EID MAR coins than I had seen before in one place. He even showed a fourree and mentioned the possibility that some (not all but not none as per Crawford) might have been issued by Brutus the cheapskate. The one he showed did not strike me as a certainly official style (I'd call it an ancient counterfeit but what do I know?). The point is that there are many fourree coins from this period that could be 'official' and MUCH more study is needed beyond knowing what to bid when one is sold. He showed the bracelet made from really low end but rare coins including what might just be the worst known EID MAR. I mentioned taking a denarius to a show so people could touch it. I have no desire to touch an EID MAR (or other coins I don't plan to buy unless I am photographing them) but I would like to see shows return to the place in my life that they occupied 20-30 years ago. I am discovering that I can appreciate coins I will not be buying more easily now that I am not buying coins as a major part of my existence.

 

Favorite photo in this thread.

 

Your coins are legendary. Known as "The panzerman collection" your coins are eye candy.

 

On this one I agree less
I haven't bought a group lot for a while and I won't be doing it too soon. My first ancient coins purchase was a group lot for me and it was extremely educational. But after this the group lots I have seen were either in very modest condition or OK-ish condition but therefore expensive, especially for large lots. Since I don't sell any coins, this is not a good option for me.
There is a possibility to check for lots sold by private collectors, where you might find a hidden gem but this is not an option for me.

 

This was my top splurge. Before fees it was 'only' $320 per mm.; 'merely' $6000 computed to cost-per-gram. :-o But no regrets! The iconography is rich!
https://cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=342216

Issuer: Uncertain Persian Achaemenid king over "Yehud"*
Date: ca. 350-340 BCE
Mint: *Yehud Medinata Province, (Jerusalem area).
Denomination: Silver one-half Gerah (AKA: one-half Ma’ah).
Obverse: Lily flower with three petals.
Reverse: Falcon, wings spread, head right; Aramaic ‘YHD’ in right field.
Weight: .409 gr. Diameter: 7.7 x 7.4 mm.
Attrib.: Hendin 1060 5th ed.; Mesh TJC 2, 15; HGC 10, 442; Fontanille YHD-15 O1/R2.

 

Accidental re-post. Now deleted.

 

Excellent example. The weight of silver in 42 of these would be roughly equal to one tetradrachm of the common 17g variety and 42 of these would be right at $100k. There are a few tetradrachms at that price but not many.

 

The most I ever spent by far was $4000 for a tetradrachm from Syphnos, in the Cyclades, which are a primary collecting focus for me after a really magical visit there. And ... two years later, new information re-attributed the coin to another location. Having purchased the coin from a CNG auction, I consigned it back to them, but it only realized $3000. Not a happy thing, but so it goes.

 

I'd also be curious to know to what extent the "80/20 rule" applies to our collections; e.g. "20% of the coins we own make up 80% of the total value"?

Personally, my collection averages about $50/coin for Roman coins (with outliers on both extremes) and about $20/coin for most of my Eastern coins, with my 1500+ Gadhaiya averaging slightly lower, probably $10-15, with extremes at a low of about $2 and a high of $250.

A fun pic I took a couple years ago - showing how many series 1.1 Gadhaiya I bought from my dealer for almost exactly the same as my Pescennius Niger denarius

 

Interesting angle!

With the spreadsheet format I maintain, I was able to quickly see:

The average I paid per coin in my collection = $131.

The most costly 30 coins in my collection = 5.6% of my collection's size, yet accounts for 37% of the total cost.

This obviously indicates my collection, for example, is much more lopsided even than the Pareto principle.

 

interesting thought! I have 1100+ coins so far....
In current 2022 valuations....
Top 50 over 10K
Next 250 6-10K
Next 250 3-5K
NEXT 250 1-2K
NEXT 250 250-1K
NEXT 50 100-249

 

I like the "satisfaction quotient" a lot. In economics we have a concept according to which all "normal" economic goods are subject to "diminishing marginal utility".
For example, for somebody close to dying from thirst, the first cup of water has the highest utility, the 5th cup has lower utility and say the 20th cup has negative utility as it start to harm the body.
In this sense I can say that I derived by far the most "utility" or "satisfaction" from the first ancient coins I bought that is coins like these ones below:

I bought these coins for GBP 8 a piece at the Charing Cross collector market in London in the early 1990s. I treasured and enjoyed these coins more than most of the much more expensive coins that I bought much later.

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Multiple authors have written that one dagger is meant to represent Brutus and the other represents Cassius, although this is undoubtedly some degree of artistic interpretation.

That said, the type is better cataloged than most as it has primary source support from Dio Cassius who wrote, "Brutus stamped upon the coins which were being minted his own likeness and a cap and two daggers, indicating by this and by the inscription that he and Cassius had liberated the fatherland."

Aaron's podcasts have some informative content but clearly need to be better advertised - I only listened to the first two. An unexpected treat to know I'll have several hours of new content to consume this week.

 

I would caution against basing your valuations off of what is undoubtedly a bubble in the market and to instead look only at historic prices or the price you paid adjusted for inflation.

A single auction record does not instantly increase the price of all other examples; quite the opposite: it means the buyer who was willing to pay the most no longer needs your coin. I often wait for new entrants to the hobby to "clear the deck" and get their examples of types I want, then buy a subsequent coin for a discount as they're no longer in the market for one.

When buying a coin at auction, at that moment, you are the only person in the world who thinks the coin is worth that much. (Yes, some coins sometimes slip through the radar but most auctions are well attended)

Realistically, we're all only temporary caretakers of our collections: it's important to ensure heirs have accurate and realistic expectations of valuation which take into account the transaction cost (auction house/dealer commission).

It's equally important for insurance: an unsupported valuation can invalidate a policy so ensure there are adequate corroborating datapoints to establish a value in a sustainable way.

Just my $0.02!