AJ's favorite 10 for 2019

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the kind words and greatly enjoy seeing everyone's favorites: it just further reinforces that the way in which people collect is as individualized as the coins themselves.

Thanks Doug, this means a lot as it resonates with what I'm trying to do with my collection. There are some coins coming up that are types I'd like to cross off my list and which might be sold at relatively low prices but I won't buy them because they aren't ticking all of the right boxes.

It'd be an interesting exercise to see what everyone would pick if every coin cost just $1 but the supply was unchanged. Would your collection be any different? Would you buy coins more frequently or still be stuck waiting for the right coins to show up (meaning, it's more a matter of opportunity to find the right pieces, not necessarily availability of funds).

I know I still wouldn't collect dekadrachms by die variety (although Scrooge McDuck'ing some dekadrachms would be fun!) and I probably wouldn't have a dramatically different collection.

 

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A.J., This is a breathtaking selection ! Thanks for sharing . The two Sicilian tetradrachms are my favorites , and the Ex Gonzaga sestertius leaves tales of the Renaissance in my mind .

 

Exceptional as always, AJ. I don’t know how one can rank such a list, but I suppose my favorites are #1 and #5. The reverse on that Bruttium nomos is truly spectacular. Thanks for sharing these with us.

 

Man, hard to pick from that group isn't it? The Egyptian coin gets my coolest of the bunch award, but that Syracuse tetradrachm is BREATHTAKINGLY BEAUTIFUL! See, it even gave the text describing it cyanosis!

 

Absolutely magnificent examples, all.

 

Beautiful coins! I love them all!

 

Meh. There aren't any coins on this list made from metal extracted from the heart and soul of the polis, a golden statue symbolizing an empire, tragically melted, and spent in a losing effort fighting perhaps the most famous war in history.

Do better next year, will ya' AJ?

(Actually #1 is, impressively enough, a worthy followup to that diobol...)

 

I aspire to emulate AJ’s collecting eye and tastes (significance, condition, centering, style, etc.).

 

Wow absolutely fascinating coins, I love all of them. #1 is definitely my number 1, great engraving work. I like #3 a lot as well with the 3 portraits. I can continue to write something nice about every single coin but all are just amazing.

 

Beautiful coins every one of them, but I have to agree - that first Syracuse tetradrachm is a masterpiece.

 

Hmmm. What would most likely happen is that I would go on a buying spree, realize that the quantity amassed was unsustainable, and then sell off most and be more selective with further buys.

Another likely scenario is that I would know that the high-caliber/interest/grade/style coins were in my grasp, and I would wait for them while also buying placeholders in the meantime.

I’m more of an opportunistic buyer. I don’t have an urge to buy a particular coin and then buy the first one I see on the market. I always wait to stumble across a coin that is special in one way or another (or “checks the boxes” I am looking for in the type on my wantlist) and buy it if it is in my budget.

 

I don't think I'll ever top the diobol, short of getting a larger denomination of the same Athens gold but those become even more budget-busting very quickly.

"Clio" luckily already owned the other example in public hands (he has a denomination set of Athens gold... if he weren't a friend, I'd hate him for this).

 

I guess he can afford it.

 

Finest I've ever seen. I think we previously discussed the rough example that I stupidly did NOT buy at NYINC several years ago. @Barry Murphy may remember selling that coin to someone else that weekend. That rough example goes in my "regret cabinet."

 

@AncientJoe I am sure your numbers 11-100 are still better than my top 10 of all times

BTW how did the akanthos tone so quickly!?

In my view, the akanthos tetradrachms in the market are coming from the same hoard as the Athenian tets. And the ones sold by HA have been all (over)cleaned by the same person as the owls.

 

I love them all

 

This would be interesting. I know I would collect Syracuse silver by die variety (the set of Boehringer numbers would set you back a thousand even if you got the die states of the ones where that made sense. I would have each of the Noah's Ark coins by different emperors and probably a few thousand assorted Archaic Greeks. I would not have mint state examples of things I now have in VF. I have said many times that the coins highest on my want list are the ones that I did not previously know to exist. I doubt the $1 rule would change that.

 

I remember that coin. It's still in the same home. Unfortunately I never got it home to photograph, or I'd post a pic of it.

Barry