1. THEBES. Thebes put a shield on its coins, the way Athens used the Owl and Corinth Pegasus. 2. Aigina. Archaic times, perhaps. Sea turtles came earlier than land turtles. (It was a political thing.)
They are both greek sure enough. The first is Boeotian in origin, a region of greece bordering Attica with Thebes as the dominant city state. Probably Theban. If it weighs in at 12 grams `ish' (+) then it is a `stater' (as it is commonly called). The denomination is hard to tell from a scan without a scale as they all look pretty much the same excepting for size and weight. Probably minted some time between 379 -371 bc. The second is from the island of Aegina. A `turtle' stater if it again weighs in around the 12 grams mark. I'd have to check references to determine the time frame for it but it looks to be sometime between 450-400 bc The Theban shield design is one of my favourites. Simple, yet quite aesthetic and immediately recognisable as to its origin. If these are yours...congratulations!
Well with all the little beauties that you keep showing off it is hard to stay out. I find that I can buy hammered gold from 1500 years ago cheaper than I can buy a nice clean white Morgan. Seems to be a no-brainer to me.
Well regrettably - it seems the rest of the world has figured that out too. Prices have been climbing steadily Some to the point where I won't buy them anymore.
Actually, there are many such areas of collecting. One of the reasons that the Great Collections, especially those like Pittman and Ford, stand out today is that the numismatists back then bought what no one else was much interested in. About 10 years ago, I was asked to attribute and price a couple hundred Tibetan coins. I went to the library and got some books on the language and of course sat down with the Krause SCWC. After a week or so, I called Colin Bruce II. I did not understand how coins so rare could be catalogued so cheap. He said that as interesting and rare as these Tibetan coins might be, they have to compete against all the other coins in the world that people want. Demand (or lack of it) carries more weight than supply. (Since then, the price of tangkas and shos has gone way up; and I am not confident that even experienced dealers always know old coins from new.) Of course, markets react. Our host says that prices on hammered gold are going up. I have heard the same thing about Conder Tokens. There is a general price rise, of course, during times of inflation, which is pretty much the constant state. In addition, mature collectors tend to move into those markets where they find bargains. As a consequence, bargains disappear and prices rise, and collectors move on to the next area. The other side of the coin is that nice material is always nice. There are differences between sharing a market, being in a crowd, and following the herd. Still, if you like something for valid reasons, a small increase in price should not be a deterrent. Incremental increases seldom go away.
Actually, I lucked out. I had written a longer post. Then, I realized that National Dealer (or anyone else) could find the details for themselves once the identification was made. As for the Persian Satraps, I would never really go head to head with you in a game of Jeopardy. You know way more than I ever will.
I agree. There is a fine line between being informative and spoon feeding. On one side of the line one provides the dangling carrot in the form of information sufficient to respond AND encourage the reader to find out more for themselves. On the other side of the line one provides so much information that one is in danger of boring the reader into wishing they had never asked in the first place.... I'm never sure which side of the line my drivellings are on at any given point in time..... but that rarely stops me That also reminds me of a famous Oxfam billboard poster I first saw about forty years ago, and which has stuck with me ever since. `Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for life'. I always thought there was something a bit fishy about coin collecting....;-) Ian
It seems that my problem is that I'm my own worst enemy. I pick an area that I like and begin looking for nice examples reasonably priced. As I find them - I share the beauty and history of these coins by posting pics in pretty much all of the coin forums. It doesn't take long - pretty soon others are competing for the same coins. Pretty soon prices begin to move up - pretty soon prices have doubled And pretty soon I find another area But my comment was directed more to the world coinage in general than a specific area. In the past year alone I have seen dramatic changes in many, many areas. And no I am not egotistical enough to think that I had anything to do with it. In my opinion, one of the primary reasons was the US coin market - prices have gotten out of hand and in many cases totally unrealistic. Savy collectors know this - they've been through it before. And when it happens - just like me - they move into "other areas". And this time - I think it has turned out to be world coinage
