First ancient acquisitions what do you think?

Hey everyone
After browsing this page I felt like I was not a real coin collector until I owned some ancient or very old coins. So in a late night stupor I was looking at coins on eBay and decided on the ones in the pictures below. So I just wanted to know what you guys thought. I paid $475 for the two. Was I ripped off? I figured if I bought certified coins I could not be sold a counterfeit. Please let me know what you think.
Larry

 

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I'm not sure, but I would have asked first and started slow. $450.00 is a decent amount of money to accomplish what you wanted to accomplish. Let's wait for others to chime in.

 

Seems high. TBH sir, I would have suggested getting some late romans, or similar inexpensive ancients and a couple of books. $475 is a lot of money for soemthign you don't know much about. The Caracalla is nice, but not rare or anything. The Mexican coin you can find in similar grade but without the damage for $200 for a nice xf typically.

So, I am saying I believe you spent $100-200 more on those than I would, but TBH I have no idea how much value a shipwreck brings to a coin. I just paying extra for a water damaged coin was silly, but I know a ton of people do.

You didn't buy fakes, and the Caracalla is a fine coin, I just would have not spent that much personally.

Ancients are even more about knowledge of what you are collecting than US coins are. Tell us what fields you are interested in, give us examples of what you are looking at, and we can provide you some feedback.

Personally I mainly collect central asia, but here is a group of denari I bought this year at a show for $18 a piece. Yes, that was a GREAT price, but all of these typically go for around $50 a piece nowadays.

 

Thanks for info. I believe both coins are high grade even with the blackening on the 8 reales. It's sometimes worth buying the coin in the condition you want and paying a bit extra. But, you may be right about me overpaying. Of those available these had better seller ratings, are graded/certified and have a buy-it-now option as I dislike bidding.

 

There are many other sources sir, many much more safe than Ebay. Vcoins is a collection of ancient dealers, and there are individual dealers like CNG, Harlan Berk, Freeman and Sear etc that you can all trust.

You were smart buying certified on Ebay if you have no clue what you are doing, but with most ancient firms you will buy unslabbed, (since that is the way ancient collectors prefer them), but the firm guarantees they are genuine. Plus, after a while, you can tell yourself.

I am not going to argue with you about buying a coin you like. No disagreement there. I would just suggest educating yourself and shopping around.

 

Thanks for your help medora. I do appreciate the constructive criticism. It's exactly what I need to start learning. While I should have done this before its definitely a good learning experience. I just hope they come before Christmas now since I've got my whole family into collecting. I thought this would be exciting.

Also, should I clean the reales or attempt to remove the blackening with silver cleaner?

By the way that is a really nice collection you got there and what a steal! I have to get new methods of collecting.

 

If you like the coins, that is the most important thing (so long as you didn't get reamed for your like of the coins, of course).

 

Don't attempt to clean unless you know what you are doing. Always best to leave it alone if you are unsure. Once you know how to, though, feel free! One of the great things about ancients is we understand some coins need to be cleaned.

I would suggest looking around and see what areas of ancients interest you. If its Roman Imperial, I would suggest buying the 1988 edition of Sear's Roman Coins and Their Values. Great book choke full of information. Prices are outdated, but relative. You can see what is more common and what is scarcer.

If you find yourself attracted to any other area, ask us what a good book would be for them. Buying a good book on ancients is the best investment you can make.

 

Well I really like ancient gold coins but some are extravagantly priced. I couldn't afford more than 400-500$ at a time per purchase. However it will probably be a few months before I buy anything else. Gotta recover from the holidays.

 

One word; Byzantine.

 

I know almost nothing about ancients as well, but the Caracalla denarius is a terrific little coin. Could be you paid a little more than necessary, but at the end of the day what you buy is more important than how much you pay for it. You could have just easily paid $475 for a severely impaired 1939 proof Walking Liberty, but would there have been much pleasure in owning it? Probably not.

 

http://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/el-cazador-shipwreck.htm
Interesting history about this shipwreck coin.

 

Exactly. That's what I was talking about in the other thread. One of the reasons El Cazador's are so cool!

 

Nice denarius!

 

It's basically a small percentage of the reason why we have the whole western half of America. The 8 reales is .002% of the total 400,000 to be exact. Cool! I'm a big dork for these things. Lol

Btw can anyone see the reverse of the coin I posted as a link in the third comment? It is slightly skewed in proportion the the head on the obverse.

 

Here it is again. Does the skew of the back symbol mean anything in terms of it being counterfeit or not? Does it change the value?

 

Oh please educate before purchase!
When you know a subject you can pick up quality from the less educated and that includes top dealers.

 

Looks like you've got a few degrees of die rotation - it's fairly common on older pieces.

So you spent a little too much on a couple of coins you liked, so what? We've all done it. Enjoy them.