Baltimore Finds...

@Sallent what's the first rule of fight club?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I have to admit that I have been unfairly biased against the drachms and tetradrachms of (and after) Alexander III. They are ubiquitous and yet the demand for them drives the prices way up past anything I want to pay for them. Well I managed to get this one at a fraction what you'd pay retail, so I finally bought a tetradrachm of Alex III - after Alex III in this case, a coin minted in Amphipolis under Lysimachos.

I grade this coin F, but it's struck in high relief so the detail is great, only a few minor scratches on the reverse, and the centering is nice. This big chunk of silver is getting passed around the house today for show-and-tell, very satisfying in hand...

 

Another nice coin. I'm like you. I haven't found one within my budget that I like well enough to buy. What's the weight on this one?

 

I like it. it has a lot of character and eye appeal

 

16.9g

Bing, here's a coin up your alley. I only bought two RR's yesterday, this denarius and an uncia. This is L. Titurius L.f. Sabinus. For those of you unfamiliar with the type, the bust is Titus Tatius, and the reverse shows the killing of Tarpeia - a coin dripping with ancient Roman legend.

So we've had the discussion of off-center strikes before - what is acceptable and what isn't, according to one collector or another. In the case of this coin, I answered that question with a yes please. For starters, the flan is oval and the obverse is struck too low, but the bust is full, and we can see how much room the die had around the dotted border - it created a lip at the top of the coin. The reverse is also struck too low, but what that means is that we are missing the inscription L TITVRI in exergue, but the scene itself is perfectly centered.

So it's not the $200 version of the coin, but it had sufficiently enough character and quality to pique my interest. Looking at a dozen of so of these, it seems the flans were always too small for the dies, so you're always going to sacrifice something...

 

Yeah, this would probably be @Bing 's type of coin. I could live with the wear. Fine and VF is ok by me, but the off-centering is too abstract for my tastes.

A very charming coin nonetheless.

 

Not sure what to make of this. I guess I collect only the junk in your eyes?

Just giving you a hard time since you are a bottom feeder. BTW, here are my examples:


And to just make your point @Sallent

 

That's a decision we all have to make for ourselves. VF+ examples of the coin that are perfectly centered run a pretty penny, however. This one sold for $1500 before fees...

 

Here's the Sasanian king Kavad I, fire altar with attendants...

 

Here is a bronze of Amphipolis during Roman Republic rule over Macedonia, 1st-century BC. Zeus obverse, with prow of galley on reverse. This coin is scarce, and I'll venture to say exceedingly rare in this condition, with full lettering and monograms on reverse. I've only seen a couple in my day, that didn't grade better than Good, if that...

 

The prow looks like a Giraffe neck to me

 

The thing is, the prow IS adorned with some sort of animal, but I've never seen an example of this type clear enough to make a guess. It sure does look like a giraffe.

 

Here is king Micipsa. I'll buy any and all of these Numidian bronzes that I find in decent shape. The curious thing about this coin is that the obverse has a fairly low-relief while the reverse is much higher...

 

They almost always come in crummy condition, but this one is better than average, especially the reverse.

 

Of course not. There is nothing wrong with an ancient with honest wear. I simply meant that you had more tolerance for off-centered coinage than I do. I could have probably phrased it better.

 

I agree with the idea of buying Numidians with eye appeal. Mine is AE26 of Micipsa. Whether you consider it worthwhile or not depends on how you value surfaces to flaws in a relative manner.

 

There was an exceptionally nice one in Naumann45 which closed recently. I considered bidding but had already spent my budget. Did any CoinTalkers pick up this wonderful coin?

 

I like this coin immensely - it's exactly the sort of Numidian bronze I would buy any day of the week. As Ken says, they are usually crappy, with a lot of damage and ugly encrustations.

 

I bought one from Warren Esty a few years ago, while picking up an assortment of coins to be given as prizes in a contest I ran on another site. I kept this one

 

Where is my prize?