Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="dougsmit, post: 1446604, member: 19463"]The cheapest gold is Byzantine but the question is whether you consider it ancient.  For a bit more you can get a solidus (three times the size of the tremesis) of one of the late Roman Rulers.  Cheapest will be Theodosius II who made history by giving the Huns 2100 Roman pounds of gold in 443 AD which is the date of his most common coin (below - coincidence?).  That is only a bit over 150,000 of these which seems like low mintage so they must have made others for other uses.  The last really good looking and cheap Roman gold is probably Constantius II but that is now a $1k coin.  Valentinian has some side view portraits which look a lot better worn down than the facing bust types that lose the face detail below VF.  This is not a good time to buy gold of this sort since melt value has overtaken the numismatic value a few years back  unless, of course, you believe that gold is going to keep going up and people will actually start melting ancients.  Watch for gold that is ex-jewelry.  They should sell for a discount.  Prong marks and wear actually made a Roman gold cheap enough I could buy one back  before the melt value went crazy.  I obviously don't keep up with the market today but this is what I would (and did) select as a one and only Roman gold. [ATTACH]178985.vB[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]