Local Dealer Junk Lot - Bruttium, Phocas (?) and an Elephant Dump

My local coin dealer has gotten a bit behind in his inventory, so he has been tossing coins in various drawers priced $12 to $0.50. A couple days ago I spent a pleasant hour or so going through them. I found three ancients, one of which was actually pretty good for a "junk" lot, I thought (Rhegium, Bruttium pentonikion). The Phocas is pretty rough, but I always liked his XXXX folli, so for $2, what the heck. The Constantine (?) AE was only $0.50, but probably not worth it. Paid $31 for the lot - random stuff that caught my eye.

Please share your junk pile finds - as a bottom-feeder, I really like looking at this kind of material.




Rhegium, Bruttium
Æ 25 Pentonkion
(c. 215-150 B.C.)
Janiform female head / Asklepios seated left by tripod holding sceptre; PHΓINΩN to
right [Π above tripod to left, serpent in exergue].
SNG ANS 745; HN Italy 2551.
(10.05 grams / 25 mm)



Byzantine Empire - Æ Follis
Phocas
Year ? (602-610 A.D.)
Constantinople Mint
DM FOCAE PP AVG, bust facing holding mappa & cross / Large XXXX, ANNO above, [regnal year?] right; mintmark [C]ON and Officina B below.
SB 640; MIB 61-62.
(28 mm / 11.31 grams)

Not ancient, but my first Ceylon "elephant dump" (to be vulgar about it!). It is a first year (1801) heavy issue. An old collector's tag is still glued to it:



Ceylon 1801
1/24 Rix Dollar dump
Colombo Mint
Elephant standing left, 1801 below. / 24 (to Rix Dollar) within circles and inscription CEYLO[N.GOVERNMENT] KM 64; Cr 23.
(24.77 grams / 22 mm)

 

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Nice coins! Those do look too good for a "junk" lot, but that works out well for you

 

Good catches and the price was right!

 

Nice lot. Wish I had a local dealer like yours.

 

I like finding coins like those. There value lies in what can be learned from them.

 

Lovely junk coins! Some look like tasty chocolates.

 

Consider yourself lucky, not a single dealer within a 30 mile radius of me sells ancients.

 

Thank you all - he is a good dealer and I am lucky to have him nearby. He doesn't have a huge number of ancients, but they are mostly quite nice (and out of my price range). He sold me my very first ancient in 1987, a denarius of Septimius Severus with MARS PATER reverse.

This past visit he mentioned to me that the collectors' market is shrinking - too many old folks, not enough young ones (he deals in all sorts of things besides coins - jewelry, stamps, Native American relics, Civil War, fossils, etc. - although coins has always been his focus). Thirty years ago I qualified as a young collector, but not any more, alas.

I still have the SS he sold me in '87: