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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Conduitt, post: 8271314, member: 109923&quot;]I know why the Helena went for that. I tried to buy it.</p><p><br /></p><p>Helena is by far the most difficult emperor/empress to get from the London mint. Some emperors are difficult to get as both Caesar and Augustus, but all are easy to get as one or the other. I haven&#039;t seen a London mint coin of Helena either at auction or with a dealer for at least 3 years.</p><p><br /></p><p>To put that into context, this auction also sold the fourth example of a London/Augusta mint Magnus Maximus solidus in the same timeframe - and there are only about 11 of those extant. (That went for £21,000 with fees).</p><p><br /></p><p>On top of that, London mint Helenas are usually in terrible condition. That one, as Roma said, was the best in the auction archives.</p><p><br /></p><p>The mystery, in fact, is why the auction estimate was £300. The pre-sale got to £700, but I knew even that was far too low. I bid £1,200, which before the sale I thought might have a chance, but clearly a couple of people were bidding with much deeper pockets and less patience than me.</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m hoping this sale will encourage some of the other examples back to the market!</p><p><br /></p><p>In the meantime, I will have to be content with this one from the Trier mint, found in Eastbourne, Sussex. Coins of Helena actually used in Britain seem much more likely to have come from Trier than London. It&#039;s a bit rough - the seller couldn&#039;t attribute it closer than &#039;Roman&#039;, and perhaps my attribution isn&#039;t quite right - but it only cost £8 rather than £2,728 (a difference of £2,720).</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Helena AE4, 337-340</b></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1459841[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Trier. Bronze, 16mm, 2.2g. Bust right wearing ornamental mantle, hair elaborately dressed; FL IVL HE-LENAE AVG. Pax standing left holding branch and transverse sceptre; PA-X PV-BLICA; Mintmark TRP (RIC VIII, 78).</b>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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