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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Valentinian, post: 4002757, member: 44316&quot;]This is true, but I think only at the very top end. The one tenth of 1% are doing very well and they want the best--which they find at Triton and the NYI--and drive those prices up. However, there are auctions almost every day of material that is, to me, very nice, that has not gone up at all in decades. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[USER=99239]@Suarez[/USER] assembles data for his ERIC books and must know prices for regular ancient coins as well as any of us. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I agree.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have an extensive library of ancient-coin auction-sale catalogs which I peruse during commercials while watching American football. Almost all those catalogs&nbsp; (NFA, pre-internet CNG, old M&amp;M, Sternberg, Spink, Leu, etc.) have coins that were considered high or very high-quality at the time. Nevertheless, almost all the coins from the 1980s and 1990s could be bought at the same nominal prices today (Exception:&nbsp; Nominal prices for Roman Republican coins have doubled). Coins bought in Swiss Francs long ago have lost a lot of value because the Swiss Franc has gone up so much while the coins have not (old catalogs from Swiss firms like old Leu, Sternberg, and M&amp;M prove this). Yes, I agree the top, say, 10% of auction coins have gone up, but most of the buyers were not buying those coins. Also, many have even gone down. </p><p><br /></p><p>I expect that the coins wanted by the collectors reading this have gone up in price. There is an explanation for that. They already have some coins and the ones they want are more expensive than the ones they have, possibly because they are better condition, or rarer, or their pockets are now deeper, or they learned more and now appreciate the desirability of better types. So, the prices of coins they want has increased--but those are <b>not the same coins</b>--they want different coins now then they did then. </p><p><br /></p><p>Look at your own collection and see how hard it would be to reproduce most of your coins bought long ago at auction. Don&#039;t just focus on the top pieces that are your favorites and you got a really good deal. Look at the rest of them, too, and you will find most that would go for about the same prices now at auction. </p><p><br /></p><p>Don&#039;t think that comparing prices to estimates says much. Everyone knows CNG underestimates its coins. Often &quot;four times estimate&quot; is really &quot;just about right.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Don&#039;t think that citing examples of coins that have gone up a lot disproves this. It doesn&#039;t. There are outliers and it is easy to focus attention on coins that have gone up because they are especially interesting. Also, I admit that the very top end has gone up. </p><p><br /></p><p>What do I mean by &quot;top end&quot;?&nbsp; The dividing line might be about the line between&nbsp; CNG e-sale quality and the quality of coins in one of their paper sales. For example, CNG often sites a coin for sale as having been in a previous auction. I have all their old PRs (even pre-internet) and sometimes look them up. As often as not the new e-sale PR is less.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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