Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;AncientJoe, post: 3265098, member: 44357&quot;]In the interest of not being overly optimistic, for the second year in a row, my goal was to add just one coin. And yet again, I&#039;ve managed to cross off 25+ items from my wantlist.</p><p><br /></p><p>My mantra from this year is &quot;second chances&quot;: shockingly, seven of my top ten coins were coins I previously attempted to buy but was outbid on or otherwise missed when sold privately (by a matter of hours in one case). This proves to me that coins eventually find their way to their rightful owner even if it requires a circuitous path.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here are some of my favorites from the year:</p><p><br /></p><p>#10: Cleopatra denarius. It&#039;s a common type but I&#039;ve finally managed to find an example with the full &quot;CLEOPATRA&quot; name visible on the obverse and a pair of fairly nice portraits. I&#039;ve added a number of other - arguably nicer coins - which could occupy the #10 spot but Cleopatra is historically important enough that I couldn&#039;t cut her from the list.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]859467[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>#9: Antoninus Pius Liberalitas aureus. I don&#039;t always upgrade coins but when this example came up, I knew I wanted to try for it. It sold for an excessively high price in its last auction appearance and I picked it up for roughly half of its previous cost.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]859468[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>#8: Seleucius I Nikator tetradrachm. One of the nicest examples of the type that I&#039;ve seen and a nice artistic pair to the Agathokles tetradrachm I posted here quite some time ago.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]859469[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>#7: Claudius &quot;IMPER RECEPT&quot; aureus. I technically committed to buying this at the end of last year but paid for and received it in January so I&#039;ll count it for 2018. I&#039;ve wanted an example of this type for years and ultimately passed on another nice example floating around. This coin has a realistic portrait which I find more appealing than some of the idealized examples. I was kicking myself for not buying this coin when it sold at NAC but happily it was purchased by a dealer who was willing to take a fair profit.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]859470[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>#6: Caracalla Vesta temple aureus. I was disappointed when I didn&#039;t pull the trigger quickly enough on this coin at the New York show in January. Happily, it was bought by a dealer and I found it in their inventory a couple months later and promptly purchased it.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]859471[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>#5: Elagabalus &quot;Emesa stone&quot; aureus. I&#039;ve been looking for an example of this type for ages as I have a collection of meteorites, a moon fragment, and other minerals. I was kicking myself for not biding more on this coin when it sold but, as luck would have it, a dealer bought it and was willing to work on price. Also adding to its appeal is that it is ex. Mazzini and ex. Sir John Evans.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]859474[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>#4: Thasos hemidrachm. I&#039;ve always admired this type and tried and failed to acquire the two most recent examples that came up for sale. This coin is much nicer than the ones on which I was outbid further proving the mantra that &quot;there&#039;s always another coin coming up&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]859855[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>#3: Domitian aureus. This coin comes from the Boscoreale hoard, buried under the ash of Mt. Vesuvius for ~1800 years, and was subsequently in the famous Biaggi collection of aurei. Its condition and iconography of Romulus &amp; Remus make it my favorite aureus in my collection. I was outbid on it in 2014 and managed to buy it for the same price thanks to a somewhat weaker market in Roman gold.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]859857[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>#2: Knossos stater. I was offered this coin privately and it was my first finalized transaction of 2018. After buying it, I said to myself that if I didn&#039;t buy a single other coin all year, 2018 will have been great. I&#039;ve loved this obverse style since seeing an example in the Boston MFA collection and have badly wanted a stater (11 grams) as an upgrade from my 4g drachm. This is a firm example for why it is beneficial to work with a dealer who knows what you like.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]859860[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>#1: Athens gold diobol. I felt there was a decent chance I would never cross Athens gold off of my wantlist but this coin happened to come out of the woodwork from the John Whitney Walter collection. It isn&#039;t the most expensive from the year, its condition isn&#039;t pristine, and it isn&#039;t as beautiful as other types, but the history is unbeatable and I couldn&#039;t be happier to have acquired it (<a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/white-whale-acquired-not-the-usual-athens.322018/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/white-whale-acquired-not-the-usual-athens.322018/">see my full post here</a>).</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]859861[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I hope everyone has a great holiday season and here&#039;s to a numismatically exciting 2019![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in