Featured In Appreciation of Large Lots - Not just crusty LRBs

This will be a random and sporadically updated thread- so apologies in advance!

But, in the past few months I have bought up quite a few large lots of coins, ranging from $2 per coin to nearly $50 per coin. Obviously most lots will have plenty of ugly/cull coins, but I felt the need to start a thread for the keepers and cream of the crop as I work through imaging them. Apologies in advance for the lack of verbose write-ups; short on time and sleep these days

That some of these were deemed unworthy of individual listings baffles me!

First up, some Romans
Tiberius, "Livia as Salus" AE dupondius - pretty worn, but still a highly coveted type!


Caligula for Germanicus, AE Dupondius, SIGNIS RECEPTIS type, also rough, and desirable in pretty much any grade!


Vespasian Dupondius / Roma - this is IMO the definition of honest wear - and I had already been feeling the itch for some nice Flavian AE anyway!

Fast forward to some really exceptional Crisis ants -

Quintillus / AETERNIT AVG, not the best condition, but a much more realistic portrait than is usually encountered on his bronzes


Tacitus, MARS VICTOR - fully silvered, with a nice thick coat of silver wash

Probus / ADVENTVS PROBI AVG, a lovely martial bust

Also Probus / IOVI CONS PROBI AVG, brilliant, full coat of silvering


Carausius, for Diocletian from London / PAX AVGGG


An abdication follis of Maximian, a type I have been hunting for well over two years now


That's all for now but stay tuned!

Got any recent lot grabs? Let's see them!

 

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Bought 2 small lots 1 1/2 years ago for about 5$ per coins: found an extra rare Honorius, 2 scarce Licinius, sold the rest of the batch and finally made a profit of 100$...

 

I’d like to go with the “ignorance is bliss” route when it comes to the absolute reality that we here on the ancients’ board may at times be in direct competition w/ each other @auction(s).

I’d also have to be pretty naive in failing to acknowledge that there are others here that have a taste (like myself) for ‘large lots’ scavenging.

I guess that’s the price that we pay in enjoying the company of fellow collectors w/ shared tastes/targets. We anonymously bid each other up, and then we can congratulate each other on nice scores.



To the thread...

While I enjoy bidding on ‘large lots’ where the coins are spread out — All being fairly easy to identify in the pics provided by the auction house — I get a bigger thrill out of discovering what might be hidden below; inside a jumbled mix-pile of unattributed coins.

It’s like an Easter egg hunt.

The thinking behind the decision-making of what sorts of coin find their way into mixed lots interests me.

Of course, some fall into the category of ‘dealer lots’. Often they are multiples of the same type(s) of coin in relatively comparative conditions. — IE. 30 Imperial denarii or ATG drachms etc.

As for the types of lots that might garner more interest with collectors...

Generally, one might presume that most in large lots might be considered ‘problem coins’ — W/ enough condition issues to not be able to stand alone @auction.

Many may be coins that failed to earn any bids in previous auctions at the AH’s lowest starting price. So they are later bundled with the hope for easier liquidation.

However, gems(in my level of rough) can still be found among these types of lots. Are they intentionally planted ‘seeds’/‘eye-candy’ to encourage more interest and help the entire lot sell?

I suspect some auction houses like to make sure that the nicest coins in a lot are placed conspicuously; if displayed in a loose pile.

As a bidder, figuring a reasonable entire value for such lots can be a challenge, especially if the auction house unscrupulously buries a bunch of slugs underneath to fill out the pile.

Certain auction houses definitely offer juicier ‘large lots’ than others.

Some of my favorite ‘large lots’ are those that look to have been parts of collections. Sometimes, they are a mixed variety bag; other times more focused. I’ve found some real gems in those types of lots.

I would post some pics ITT of my fav. ‘large lot’ finds, but my laptop took a nasty fall a month back, and it broke behind repair. As such, I lost my meager catalog of coin pics.

So, apologies for no pics. My new laptop ought to be arriving any day now; so I can get back to contributing images in addition to text.

Nice scores OP!

 

Interesting topic!

I recently bought these 2 lots, containing 30 coins in total, on eBay for less than £1 per coin. They were buy it now listings from the same seller that were only about 30 minutes old, so I snapped them up. Yes, a lot of them are horrible bronze diseased discs, but there a few gems in there, including a nice follis of Maximinus, 4 damaged denarii, and a Byzantine pentanummium! Will try and resell most of them on eBay

(Also, anyone know what the one right of the sestertius of the first picture is? I think it's probably a Tiberius as, but I'm not sure of a more specific ID)





I also bought 2 pretty big lots of 50 various antoninianii each, at £2.60 per coin. Have kept the ones I like most, and am reselling the rest

 

This bothers me when I see large lots of coin in the several hundred $$$ per coin group. The recent flood on the market of early electrum has produced wonderful individual coins and piles of coins considered to undesirable to sell separately but made expensive by their metal. The king of large lots IMHO was the AK collection groups sold by CNG in several Triton sales.

This is a matter of opinion. Many collectors ignore any coin under mint state as if it did not exist. Some of us are happy when small dealers buy up large lots and separate them out for those of us who did not want the whole group. I have no 'recent' coins to show but some of my favorite coins over the years have come from groups of 30 or more sold by people who did not see what I saw in terms of the desirability of the coins. That is why I mourn the demise of the thousands of small dealers leaving us nowhere to get coins except the large numismatic Wal-mart style auction houses. My last hope was coin shows now on long term hold or gone forever. Which(?) remains to be seen.

 

Looks like Domitian from Judaea, Victory and a Roman trophy of arms.

 

Interesting grabs and you stayed away from large lots of crusty AE3s and AE4s for the most part.

 

Crusty AE4s are the best! Barbaric and late roman Nummus for all!

 

Thanks all, and nice examples!

Next up are some coins from a Ptolemaic lot from Nomos; I still don't understand how these are attributable to specific Ptolemies, but for now, I'm trusting the online resources.

Ptolemy II AR tetradrachm, Tyre Mint (club) Year 8 (H) 275 BC


Sicilian series, Hieron II (Imitating? In alliance with?) Ptolemy II


Ptolemy III AE19 hemiobol? Beautiful patina with Chi Rho between legs of the eagle. Not sure if this is a rare denomination or just unpopular compared to the massive larger denominations in this series?


Ptolemy IV AE43 drachm, a whopping 72.62g - this was honestly the "draw" for me to bid to win the lot


Ptolemy VI "Isis Bust" AE28 - a particularly refined portrait with clear flan smoothing concentric circles on both sides


Ptolemy VIII AE 31


Ptolemy XII AR Tetradrachm, Year 21 (KA), Paphos mint? 60 BC

Cleopatra VII with Ptolemy XII AR light tetradrachm (8.5g) "Feminized bust" series, Year 30 of Ptolemy XII / Year 1 of Cleopatra, 51 BC


Another one, for good measure

 

Gosh Finn, I'm jealous of that double struck Diocletian under Carausius. Great coin.

 

Where do you people find such good lots? Every large lot I’ve bought is almost entirely junk

 

Oh snap. You know my name is on this thread. Actually my latest are stuck in another state, its two group lots of Greek bronze, about 200 total, gF to VF. I was just pawing through again a group of Greek I got a while ago from Album and noticed a very nice gVF carthaginian bronze that was interesting, made via casting the planchets like Ptolemaic pieces, (one side noticeably smaller than the other), but no sign of center divot.

Anyway, I could talk all day. However, I try to stick to a rule of thumb, I must be able to justify the price of the lot based on half the coins. If I am willing to pay for half the coins the price, the rest are "free". This let's you feel ok about the few pieces of dreck that can come with some lots, just ignore them. I have a big baggie of ancient coins I give to kids because I don't want them I got this way. I bought one lot of lead Sasanians knowing half the lot didn't hold much interest to me, but the ones that did, WOW. I now own the only known lead Vahran II I have ever seen. None are published.

I totally agree also about those lots appearing to be someone's collection. Tons of great pickups in those. That is why I am excited to get those 200 bronzes, it appears it was someone's collection. OTOH, buying hoards can be good too. Another lot stuck in another state is two 25 coin lots of VF-XF mid periods Sassanian, Yazdigerd and Vahran V i am anxious to see.

Yeah, I see some of us competing for them, and I see many group lots posted here that I was the underbidder on, but there is always another coin, something else to spend my money on. I never get upset to lose a lot, I am happier to see them here with a happy owner than never see it again.

Edit: Here is a pic of the lot I was referring finding a really nice Carthginian in:

 

All that I have to say is this...if he asks you to help move him from his house to a condo or something say no! Those boxes aren't full dishes they are full of ancient metal! Heavy!

 

Well, at least I offer to my coin club to sell off duplicates from the groups I buy..... yeah, I don't do that. Isn't Axle still mad I wouldn't sell him a Augustus from one lot I brought in one time? Oh well, yeah I might get attached to stuff I buy.....

I still contend if you ever wanted that Elagabalus with the face mask I would sell it to you, (well, if and when I could find it that is, which may or may not be intentional). It would be like finding a needle in a haystack, since not all of my boxes in the sdb are that organized, there are three sdb's, etc. More stuff for me to rediscover whenever I retire.

 

Lots are fun. When I decided to start collecting ancient coins, I bought a lot of 35 coins from an auction house (35 coins, actually 34 + 1, as one was something impossible to be identified, probably something from 19th century in a horrible state)


All this was 100 EUR but it was DELICIOUS (some pretty rare items there) and it helped me develop this huge passion - I learned how to identify coins.
Of course nothing truly spectacular but the price was a bargain.
Many coins look much better in hand than in this pic (there were no details about the coins in the description, just "lot of Roman bronze" but this is not accurate.


After a month I risked again, on a different auction house



Also 100 EUR hammer price but I wasn't too happy to be honest. However, it wasn't a disaster ...

It's great when you find a lot that hasn't been cherry picked and you find a rare coin or one in a decent condition. Identifying these 2 lots, especially the first, was the greatest fun I had in my 10 years numismatic "career" and, definitely, the most educational activity from my 6 months ancient coins collecting "career".

 

I can't say i've done this with ancients (only have a few) but many times I've bought larger lots of large cents just for 1 or 2 dates. I have little doubt that those dates were purposely shown by the dealer to help push the price up. On the other hand, I've gotten quite a few good deals by buying in lots. I would expect similar from ancients

 

Heh, I recognize that pic from a S. Album auction a few months back. I had a couple of those mixed lots on my radar as well. I failed to secure any of them.

I too employ a strategy of comfortably undervaluing large lots, as to how much I set for a max bid. As such, I lose out on >95% of the lots that I bid on. That is probably a good thing for my wallet.

Being a bargain hunter. I’d like to believe that I’m acquiring coins @(or below) wholesale, rather than at retail prices.

However, when I was still only months into the hobby(w/ limited-to-none valuation experience), there were a few large lots that I later regretted getting away from me. I wish I had bid more at the time; making a better effort at securing some of them — later realizing the hammer price was still comfortably below what the lots were likely worth.

What’s crazy, is that in the year or so that I’ve been collecting, prices have noticeably inflated significantly in that short time. It almost has the feel of a ‘bubble’ of panic-buying emerging.

It has made pricing and securing quality large lots more of a challenge of late.

I’ve learned a lot over the months by simply researching unattributed lots on offer, and identifying visible coins that I didn’t eventually end up acquiring.

Here’s a mini lot of RRs scheduled to be dropped in my box a little later, after making its way across the pond from the UK.




Actually, I just heard the mailman make the drop as I pasted the pic.

WooHoo!

 

Some of my best finds have been through group lots.
For example this lot, for only $1000


In fact, I have this lot coming tomorrow, at an average of $20 a coin.

 

Some fantastic finds in those group lots, @Finn235! Were you the one who picked up the 5th century LRB lot from Roma recently? I saw that just before it came on the block and (if I'm remembering correctly it was you) you're lucky I didn't have more time to review it.

Here are a couple of neat rarities I got in groups within the last year or so:

Egypt, Alexandria: Diocletian tetradrachm / Harpokrates reverse

I was really floored about this one:

Maximianus follis, London mint, LON mark, draped loins. LMCC supplement 2, 1.01.002A (unique?)

A few years ago I turned a lot into a CT game... we had fun, and there was some cool stuff in there.

 

I've discovered the pleasure of large lots, in particular Byzantine. In the past I have found some really nice and interesting coins, as well as coins that motivate research efforts (for me, I need all the motivation I can get).

The cost per coin, on the average, is between $10 and $15 or so.

Here are a couple of examples some large lot coins that I have posted in the past:

Justin II and Sophia follis, Constantinople, RY 3. Former BD patient


Heraclius follis, circa 610 AD, Constantinople, RY 3, Officina B



Heraclius, as The Caped Crusader, follis, overstrike



Basil II and Constantine VIII, anonymous follis, Class A2



Basil II and Constantine VIII, anonymous follis, Class A3





I have more that I need to photograph, along with Arab imitations.