I finally bought the famous ancient coin

more photos.

 

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Wow thats beautiful, and chunky too. Congrats again.

 

Main problem with these is that they are so dang thick they do not like to stay in flips very well, or in pages. Please let us know how you are going to store yours, I would like some tips on mine.

 

I have pretty well decided that there is no single way to store ancients. I love trays but a large collection in trays really fills up a big bank box quickly and I have a half dozen coins too thick to fit in a stack of standard trays. I hate flips. Paper envelopes work well and pack in boxes well so that may be my favorite way now that I have photos of every coin and don't need to see each one as often as I used to prefer. It is amazing how my opinions on this have changed since I got the complete photo set done. Being able to carry the entire collection in enlarged form on a thin netbook (iPad would be better) gets more appealing as my old eyes get weaker, too.

One nice thing about that system is that you can place some coins in AirTites or some other holder that also fits in the boxes in order so the only problem coins are those too large for a 2x2 envelope. There are very few of those.

For really thick coins, I rather like the little plastic tubs that have foam inserts that can be cut down to accept thicker coins but, like trays, they take up too much space to use for a large collection.

 

My current storage of thick coins

I only have a few ancient coins so I don’t yet have the experience or difficulties that you all have with your large & advanced collections. Since everyone is discussing storage, I’ve taken photos of how I’m storing the Athena/Owl tetradrachm.

The few (3) ancient that I have include at least one 2x2 card with written information. I currently just keep the 2x2s with writing behind the 2x2 holding the coin. This makes viewing the reverse awkward but currently it is only a few coins in my collection.

Here is the Athena/Owl’s new home.

 

This is how the thick 2x2 is constructed. I cut several 2x2s in half and just make a coin sandwich. I remove the Mylar from all but two of the 2x2 pieces. I insert staples & flatten the staples with pliers as I assemble the 2x2 and it grows thicker. The outermost 2x2 is normally both stapled and taped in place by the label.

 

Of course, you can fit the thick 2x2 into a standard 2x2 box. You could also put the thick 2x2 into a 2.5” flip & it will fit into a slab box. I only have a few thick coins so they are mostly mounted in Eagle slab pages as depicted here.

 

Very nice system, I need to think of doing something similar since the flips aren't cutting it on these thicker coins.

Thank yo very much for your post and pictures! I hope you get a lot more of these "problems" to deal with in the future! They are fantastic coins.

 

If anyone is looking for some nice ancients you should quickly review the stacks/bowers auction. It is going live in an hour or so.

Here is a nice Athena/owl coin in the auction:
https://ssl.stacksbowers.com/auctions/AuctionLot.aspx?LotID=222204

I placed some high bids on a couple really nice coins and have already been out-bid. Here is one I lost.

 

If someone is in the market for ancients, I would also recommend CNG. They have some huge important auctions, but also have electronic auctions that close every few weeks with about 1000 coins. This is the largest ancient coin firm in the world I believe.

I don't think either of these two venues are the CHEAPEST, but both are extremely reputable sellers and their provenance does help a coins value.