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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;AncientJoe, post: 1954331, member: 44357&quot;]Thanks! I was indeed sold on this coin by its reverse. While the obverse could be better centered, I don&#039;t mind it either and find Brutus&#039; portrait relatively attractive, at least by imperatorial standards.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I did consider the Goldberg coin but was strongly advised to pass on it. While it has exceptional detail, the porosity was considered unforgivable by my dealer and other experts I consulted, and my own tastes tend to agree. Their image made it look considerably nicer than it did in hand: the coin looked shinier than a brand new dime. Some were saying it was recently plated over with silver to obscure parts of the porosity.</p><p><br /></p><p>It all worked out for the best in any event, as the winning bidder was one of the billionaire collectors who will buy anything at any price (and outbid me on several other lots at the Goldberg sale). Lanz was far less attended, with only a handful of people in the room versus a packed house at Goldberg.</p><p><br /></p><p>I wasn&#039;t able to see my coin in-hand before buying it but was pleasantly surprised by its metal quality. All of the Eid Mars were struck with slightly base silver and exhibit some degree of porosity but mine is much more solid than most, only seeing some slight porosity under strong magnification rather than nearly at arms length with the Goldberg coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, in looking at the catalog image from Lanz, my coin looks considerably more porous than it does in hand, which was a bit perplexing. After some experimentation, I was able to replicate this by taking my images and applying a strong Photoshop &quot;Sharpen&quot; filter to them, which confirms what I&#039;ve seen in some other coins I&#039;ve bought from Lanz.</p><p><br /></p><p>The acquisition of this coin was certainly the largest numismatic rollercoaster I&#039;ve been on, considering the extremely strong price realized for the preceding very poor NAC example and difficult to anticipate auction fever.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Precisely - I am indeed trying to collect at an intersection of artistry and history, with the end goal to tell the story of Western history through coinage. I&#039;m also attempting to have a fairly evenly distributed collection, avoiding over-focusing on certain emperors or eras. This is proving to be a bit difficult as I have a dozen coins of Augustus on my wantlist.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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