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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 4501091, member: 19463&quot;]The answer here makes all the difference.&nbsp; If they are ONLY giving this information when the book max has been reached, this strikes me as dishonest; if they did it on all lots as a way of keeping the sale moving, it might be less offensive but after revealing the max, no bids could be entered for less than that number without being a shill situation.&nbsp; There is no longer expectation of any action that does not result in a higher realization so it must be the former.</p><p><br /></p><p>I once enjoyed watching what Clio bought in CNG sales and complimented him here on his good taste.&nbsp; I find it hard to believe that he would be buying 70% of the lots in any sale because 70% of the coins in even the better sales are either pedestrian coins not worthy of his collection or duplicates of things he already had.&nbsp; Perhaps I was wrong that he was building a world class collection of the most interesting and important coins and not just a pile of high end but &#039;ordinary&#039; coins.&nbsp; Of course, he could be investing rather than collecting and hoping to sell the surplus for a profit or leveraging trades with owners of things he wants.&nbsp; I do not pretend to understand all the business aspects of coins but I previously thought Clio did have a good grasp on which coins were important to the study as opposed to eye candy.</p><p><br /></p><p>My observation is most of Frank&#039;s &#039;Going Cheaply&#039; list are coins that received no bids or coins that received only slightly more than the minimum.&nbsp; I have never been leading on a coin that later appeared on his cheap list but I have on several occasions seen things that I had overlooked previously and bid.&nbsp; I usually bid a bit over the minimum to guard against others bidding just the minimum needed but in the last sale that did not work and I lost six of the cheap lots which ended up selling for more than I would pay.&nbsp; I won one which was listed at the start price of $45 by bidding $51 and was charged $49.&nbsp; I assume this means someone else also bid on the lot - perhaps $48???&nbsp; I would be interested in hearing from anyone who bought any of the &#039;Going Cheaply&#039; lots in this last sale to see if we &#039;bumped heads&#039; on them. </p><p><br /></p><p>Below is FSR lot 166 - my &#039;Going Cheaply&#039; win.&nbsp; It is better than most of these common coins (Sear 7098 var.) but has one &#039;problem&#039; that led to a very uncharacteristic FSR error.&nbsp; He listed the date as &quot;K-Pi-P&quot; which anyone that understands Greek numbers would know was impossible.&nbsp; The&nbsp; &#039;K&#039; was a poorly struck B making the date year 182 or 130BC.&nbsp; Greek numerals used a different set of letters for each digit with B being two and K being twenty.&nbsp; P (rho) is clearly 100 and Pi is 80 so the leftmost digit has to be Alpha through theta (1-9).&nbsp; Antiochus VII died in 129BC or year 183 by their system so the Pi makes only A, B or Gamma possible.&nbsp; Comparing this coin to others online, I see that the odd shaped B was standard.&nbsp; If anyone has a coin of this type with a clear B, I would love to see it.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1116239[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>I hope this does not mean Frank is getting old and will be selling his business and good name to someone who will run it into the ground as happens too often.&nbsp; Who remembers when Singer made the best sewing machines?&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Someone help me:&nbsp; Frank correctly pointed out that this coin was exceptional due to the clear detail on the reverse headdress.&nbsp; Unlike most you see, it has some symbol in the central circle.&nbsp; Can anyone tell me the meaning of that symbol?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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