I concentrate on US coins but at an International Coin Fair, I purchased a Roman Republic C. Antesti Silver Denarius. It's an XF coin but I have no clue where to find it's listed value. What site, program or published source do you use for pricing your ancients?
I'm lazy and just look at varoius dealers, specily vcoins.com and compare prices, try searching with "Antestius"
Yeah, there really isn't any equivalent of the Red Book or anything like that for ancients. The closest thing is the Roman Coins and Their Values series by David R. Sear, but those are very expensive (like $90 each), and due to the nature of the ancient coin market, values in it vary much more from actual market prices than any source on modern coins. You really need to just shop around yourself to get an idea or ask those who buy that particular sort of coin. I would recommend following Randy's advice and seeing what it goes for on VCoins.
Thanks guys. I bookmarked both sites. I found it immediately on Coin Archives. Looks like I paid about $30 more than current auction prices but I believe mine is in slightly better condition. That's close enough considering I was without knowledge and completely out of my comfort zone. Thank goodness I found an ethical dealer.
Another resource is acsearch: http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?search="Antestius"&view_mode=1&en=1&de=1&fr=1&it=1&page=2#0 but both this and Coin Archives tend to report sales from major houses and can be misleading by favoring high end coins. There is more than one Antestius variety and some are common. You always pay more from a 'reliable' dealer and that is prefectly OK, recommended even. Prices on ancients vary a lot more than modern coins which have yearly updated priced catalogs. Rarity means next to nothing and demand fluctuates from sale to sale since no one is trying to buy a complete set and what people are seeking most actively can seem a bit random. A coin that has not appeared on the market for several years can go high if two people are anxious or very low if no one was interested. Condition means everything. $30 more for 'slightly better' could be a bargain.
