[CLOSED] World Coin Contest, 1st place $60. value

Update: this contest is now CLOSED. Winners were announced in Post #25.

The Prize(s)
Your pick of any non-USA (World Coin) valued at $60 (USD) or less, listed on V-coins. Not Ancients, these will have their own contest.


just a sampling of items listed, dealer names hidden, winner choice of any coins or coin books, at $60 or less.


I’m trying to get some info on what coin collectors like out of Coin Auctions. Following is a list of questions. The contest winner must answer at least 3 questions with an average of 83.3 words per question for a minimum of 250 words total. I’m trying to research Auction info, and or genuine info on your coin bidding experiences.

The contest will be open for around 1 month. It closes on February 4th, 11:59 pm EST and you can submit your response to me here via private message or by my published email: john@coinsandhistory.com I will publicly post the winner(s) names and any honorable mentions when the contest ends but not the winning entries.


The best response, not necessarily the nicest, most useful, nor longest, will win. If I get more than one good response I may award a 2nd place winner at $30.


You can revise a response by just resubmitting it, but only one response per person/family will be judged.


Questions to pick from (at least 3 per entry) are:

1) Are you looking for pre-determined specific coins or are a bargain-hunter? For example, if you found a coin that you considered important for your collection, would you outbid historical prices realized or other serious collectors to get it?

2) Can you provide 2 to 4 examples (or more if you want) of hard-to-find or hard-to-specify coins that you've been trying to find for a long time (1 year or more)?

3) If you could create your own personal search service that was all-knowing, what characteristics would you want it to have? Would it be important to control the notifications this thing sends you? For example:

a) no more than 1 notification per month or you can program on the fly how you get notified?

b) notification(s) color-coded as in important ones are purple (or your choice), medium ones are another color, and average ones are B&W.

c) Or keep it simple.


4) How much time do you spend looking through Auction listings or catalogs, NOT dealer’s fixed price lists, at coins? Per year of course.

5) What would you improve about Auction Catalogs or Listings if you could? And of course, if production costs were no object. Would this be: easier to find layouts of coins, more historical information about each coin, better photographs and descriptions of condition or other things?

6) Have you ever called auction firms for better descriptions or information about coins before bidding? How often do you go to coin shows or how do you talk or correspond with other coin collectors?

7) Where do you get most of your Coin-related News? Would you enjoy or find useful articles about trends in the areas that you collect {as opposed to hype about how your favorite series are getting ever more expensive and unobtainable}, information about recent hoards found, biographies of famous or knowledgeable collectors, news about the history behind your favorite series or whatever else you can think of?

8) What coin advertising media do you see?

9) What do you consider a long time to be searching for a coin? How do you search for these?

10) What auctions aside from the major ones in the US do you look through even if rarely? Are there any lesser-known auction sites you’d recommend?

11) How valuable would a good detailed coin search service be to you? This would be not to just service rich or wealthy collectors but to make such a service available to the average collector.

12) How many collectors do you think there are who compete with you for World Coins? How many collectors of World Coins do you think are there in the US and in the world who are serious enough to spend $1,000 per year on coins?

13) How often do you branch out or bid/buy a coin at auction that you didn’t know about before you read thru the catalog? What % of coins do you end up buying or seriously bidding on that you didn’t know about before you read thru the auction listing or catalog?

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More details

The contest winner will pick any non-Ancient World Coin on V-coins, valued at $60 or less & I will buy it and have it mailed to them. If they pick something less than $60, but greater than $20. I will also give them the difference in cash. That way if they find a coin they love at $45, they don't have to pick something different to maximize their win.

If you have another dealer who has a coin you’re dying to buy, I may consider that instead of using V-coins. I’ll also pay for postage to you, as long as it’s not too oppressive (a Swedish copper plate being sent to the International Space Station for example). If the winner is International, I will pay for some shipping method keeping the shipping at $20 or less.

The winner must pick some coin and not just get the prize in cash as CoinTalk is about coin-related matters.

I will be doing a contest on World Coins and a separate contest on Ancient Coins. Each contest must have a different winner. I will be judging the entries myself and will try to be as objective as possible.

Try to use spell-check, but spelling errors will NOT be counted against an entry as long as I can discern what it means.

 

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What date is the cutoff for 'ancients'? Many might lump the Arab-Sassanian into late antiquity.

 

Interesting. I will type up some answers and send them your way.

 

Upon the advice of my 14-y/o son, I'm going to post the Ancients Contest at the conclusion of this one on Sunday, Feb 4th, 2024. Questions will be similar but directed towards Ancients. The reward will be the same: $60 for 1st place. If I get more than 1 good response, I'll consider awarding 2nd place & honorable mentions.

 

The Ancients Contest will start at the conclusion of this contest which is Feb 4th, 2024. It depends who you talk to when the Ancient era ends & World begins.

Many people use 476 AD, some use 480, and there is some discussion that it should be around 572 AD. I'm not going to be too legalistic, hoping that I don't get an overwhelming number of Sassanian collectors. Thus you could put Sassanian into the current contest or into Ancients.

 

I collect 670BC to present.

1/ I try to target only high quality EF-MS

2/ My thing is to checkout as many auction sites as possible.

3/ I sometimes google search a coin I have been after/ so for ex. yesterday I searched AV Dukat Teutonic Order. Saw many on coinarchives/ past/ upcoming auctions. No gold except a AV 10 Dukaten/ Stacks (which I can't afford) But there was a decent one for sale (Austrian dealer) in AU-55 for $1892.99US. So I got it.

4/ I always check "unsold lists" I have bought in past ten years 180 unsold AV coins! Just back in early December/ I checked Teutonburger " unsolds. Lo and behold to my utter amazement a Vz.--ST. aureus Gallienus unique RRRRR was offered at opening bid 7200e + fees. Took me 2 secs to press buy now button. This coin is Calico plate coin/ and last sold Ars Classica 2004.

5/ I keep all my auction catalogues in library form have 1200+ catalogues/ same as coin collection. These are great for prices/ reference! I use my empty insect cabinets for these too!

 

Looks good but currently only 186 words!

 

continued...
6/ Auction secrets. Its always to a bidders advantage to avoid these mistakes. The creme de la creme of auctions/ Heritage/ Stacks/ CNG/ Künker/ Spink/ Ars Classica/ Morton & Eden attract most bidders/ thus hammer prices are crazy high. Some of the obscure auction house have hidden gems/ that may sell for half or less. Grading is also a big factor. Auction like Heritage offer all lots in TPG slabs. Take an ex./ Künker had a NGC MS-65 Napoleon I AV 20 Francs 1812. However they graded it as fast st. (about unc.) thus it sold for far less/ then one in US site. Also/ Europeans grade coins strict. Their rules are so...

stempelglanz/ FDC/ SC/ MS = US MS-66/67/68/69

fast st. /Q FDC /SC- / splendide/ AU = US MS-65/ 64

Vorz.+ . supberb+ / EBC+/ = US MS-63/ 62/ 61

Vorz. EBC Supberb = USAU-55/ AU-58/ MS-60

7/ ACSEARCH is excellent platform for looking up previous coin auction prices. They list all auctions were coin you looked up sold in past years

 

Way too much reading. I’ll pass

 

So very very true!

 

Maybe that's why you think "Everything is a guess"?

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.”

George R.R. Martin: The writer whose novel is the basis for "The Game of Thrones"

Only 3 questions...

 

It's a nice contest, but I avoid auctions, not having participated in a coin auction since the Clinton administration. I only do fixed-price coins.

 

Generally coins above $500 are often auctioned in the World area. The theory is that unusual coins are too expensive for a dealer to tie up in inventory and are specialist coins.

A dealer needs to turn over inventory in a reasonable period although I've known one coin dealer to have coins for years and to keep raising the price year after year on the same coin.

Also if you're looking for something unusual, it may appear in an auction.

I always thought Nero's was a great name for a pizza shop or an Italian Restaurant but apparently, the mass market thinks differently.

 

Only 3 entries to date. Anyone who enters thus can get a 25% chance of winning as entry #4.

 

Questions to pick from (at least 3 per entry) are:

1) Are you looking for pre-determined specific coins or are a bargain-hunter? For example, if you found a coin that you considered important for your collection, would you outbid historical prices realized or other serious collectors to get it?

I sometimes go into my regular buys looking for a specific emperor, denomination, or a specific appearance (such as patina), but most of the time, I look though a few, favorite dealers and buy whatever strikes my fancy.

2) Can you provide 2 to 4 examples (or more if you want) of hard-to-find or hard-to-specify coins that you've been trying to find for a long time (1 year or more)?
- Many years went by until I found a suitable Sulla portrait denarius. I don't constantly look, but only a small handful pop up on vcoins,sometimes none, per year.



3) If you could create your own personal search service that was all-knowing, what characteristics would you want it to have? Would it be important to control the notifications this thing sends you? For example:

(no answer)

4) How much time do you spend looking through Auction listings or catalogs, NOT dealer’s fixed price lists, at coins? Per year of course.

Nearly zero. I avoid auctions like the plague, and haven't participated in one since the Clinton administration. Even then, I think 90% of my auction purchases came from remainder lists.

I recently received a free HJB catalog for a while after a purchase, but it generally went straight to the round file. No disrespect to HJB, but I don't need a printed catalog (I'm legally blind in one eye), any good deal was usually long gone by the time the catalog reached me, and I would get frustrated/angry that the catalog took up so much space in my mailbox. What if a coin comes? I much prefer the digital catalogs, although I very rarely look.

If it's not fixed-price, it's pretty much dead to me. I hate competing against others, tying up time in an auction, all the extra costs,all the reports of shill bidders, and I'm somewhat of a budget collector (under $1,000 a coin), so auctions make no economic sense. It would have to be some special circumstance, like a coin of a lifetime, for me to even consider bidding in an auction.

I have picked up a decent amount of rare and some relatively expensive types over the years, but most of those have been lucky situations. I'd either pick it up at a coin store, luck into the deal, etc.

I spend a LOT of time looking at fixed-price lists.

5) What would you improve about Auction Catalogs or Listings if you could? And of course, if production costs were no object. Would this be: easier to find layouts of coins, more historical information about each coin, better photographs and descriptions of condition or other things?

I enjoyed the CNG catalogs of the 1990's. I would also want any important flaws, like tooling, smoothing, bronze disease, etc., be mentioned.

6) Have you ever called auction firms for better descriptions or information about coins before bidding? How often do you go to coin shows or how do you talk or correspond with other coin collectors?

It's been many years since I called a dealer, but if one includes the more modern definition of writing to them through email, then occasionally, yes.

I enjoy coin shows, but the last coin show I attended was in circa 2011. I don't travel more than 50 miles, and I haven't known of any other coin show (with ancients) within the city limits. Most of the coin shows would also be downtown, which is a real pain to get to. The coins can come to me, through the magic of e-commerce, so I don't go to too much effort to attend coin shows.

7) Where do you get most of your Coin-related News? Would you enjoy or find useful articles about trends in the areas that you collect {as opposed to hype about how your favorite series are getting ever more expensive and unobtainable}, information about recent hoards found, biographies of famous or knowledgeable collectors, news about the history behind your favorite series or whatever else you can think of?

I receive 95% of my coin-related news from Numisforums, and about 5% from Aaron Berk's podcast (it's usually been mentioned on N-F before the podcast is made) or the youtube channel Classical Numismatics.

8) What coin advertising media do you see?
Close to zero. I use NoScript for Firefox. I fondly remember (and purchased from) the Allen Berman fixed-price lists of the 1990's, published in the Celator.

Well, I guess if one counts the Aaron Berk podcast as indirect advertising, the minutes would certainly add up.

I allow Marc Breitsprecher's email updates of his inventory, as he does it tastefully and sparingly, maybe once a month or every other month. I even sometimes check it out.

Some of the others are pretty bad about email spam, London Ancient Coins and the mysterious Aphrodite Coins (Bid NOW!). They both received custom email filters and it goes straight to the trash. The LAC one was ridiculous and unrelenting, at least 3 or 4 emails a week, about additions to stock, auctions which I don't care about, etc. I love the coins at LAC, I just didn't love the advertising.



12) How many collectors do you think there are who compete with you for World Coins? How many collectors of World Coins do you think are there in the US and in the world who are serious enough to spend $1,000 per year on coins?
I've heard an estimate of how many ancient coin collectors there are, and there aren't many. It all depends on one's definition of 'World' coins. If one includes 17th century German coins, and that kind of thing, pretty many. If one defines it as I do, Sassanian, Parthian, Indian, Asian coins, not very many - even less than regular ancient coins.

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Here's a bonus answer of a question not covered. Many of my favorite Byzantine coins have come from Allen Berman. However, years would pass between purchases. If he had a website (a more modern, e-commerce website, not the traditional one he maintained), I would have been a constant customer. It really hurt that I never knew what he had, so hence, I couldn't purchase. It kind of became an out of sight, out of mind situation.