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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;IdesOfMarch01, post: 2015650, member: 39084&quot;]One of the best features of the Internet is the relatively easy availability of useful information on high-end coin prices, via the <i>acsearch.info</i> site.&nbsp; In particular, it takes only a very brief search to find a recently sold example of the Mithradates that is a far superior coin at a much lower price:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]363806[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>This coin sold in March 2014 for about $50,000 including buyer&#039;s fee.</p><p><br /></p><p>From time to time I will view EBay&#039;s offerings of high-value ancient coins and compare them to reality via a brief search of the Internet.&nbsp; 100% of the time, EBay&#039;s high-value ancient offerings are, to put it bluntly, a joke.&nbsp; To use them as a basis of comparison for the overall high-value ancient coin market is useless and misleading.&nbsp; The two coins above are no exception to that rule.</p><p><br /></p><p>Except in very rare circumstances, supply-and-demand determines prices for ancient coins as it does for most other items in a free market.&nbsp; The rare circumstances seem to occur when a bidding war between two or more very wealthy individuals overrule logic and drives prices beyond what most people would consider reasonable.&nbsp; About six years ago I saw, and bid on, a Roman quadrigatus that was estimated at $6,000 and described as &quot;one of the best of its type.&quot;&nbsp; It went for about $12,000 (if I recall correctly).&nbsp; I didn&#039;t win it.&nbsp; The buyer sold it at a later auction that year for over $20,000, and THAT buyer sold it at an auction less than a year later for -- get this -- over $200,000 when two wealthy Russian (I think) bidders got into a war over who would own this &quot;best of its type&quot; quadrigatus.&nbsp; I don&#039;t know if that quadrigatus will ever be able to fetch its most recent price, but the owner probably doesn&#039;t care since he now owns the &quot;best&quot; quadrigatus in existence.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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