My first Greek bronze

I was getting a little bored waiting on some of the material coming up for auction soon and ran across this online and tossed in a bid and won. It's on my list of types I wanted, but I've not bought a bronze ancient yet for fear of bronze disease. This one looked decent and relatively inexpensive, so I figured I'd pick it up to see how well bronze fits in with the rest of the collection. Since I'm not as familiar with bronze, if anyone sees any issues with it, please let me know.

 

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Very nice coin for a first greek bronze.

 

The only issue I see about this lovely coin, is that it isn’t mine. Very nice, and I personally think Greek bronzes are underrated. It’s an interesting collecting area for me at least.

 

Nice piece. I love sturgeons, so I have many of these pieces.

 

I wanted a full sturgeon, but those are hard to find with nice surfaces. I hope to upgrade to a full sturgeon eventually, but for now I think this one will do and is nice. Thanks!

 

A very nice example! There was an entire thread about these coins less than a week ago if you'd like to take a look. See https://www.cointalk.com/threads/art-from-panticapaeum.378716/

 

@kazuma78 -3rd one for the year? Congratulations

seems like the purchases slowed down a bit, I presume due to insane competition.

 

Yes, I refuse to pay absurd prices for things and have put in some very strong bids. One bid was 2x what any previous example had sold for in recent years and the quality really wasn't much better than the last few examples. I'm just trying to be patient and wait for the right coin/moment. I've only bought 3 ancients this year, 2 being fixed price. I have bought a few inexpensive US pieces, all under a couple hundred bucks for the most part. I've been trying REALLY hard to buy 2 UNC 1896 educational notes ($1 and $2) that were bought by the family back in the 1930's but haven't been able to connect with them with cash in hand yet.

 

There are some deals out there, but it became increasingly hard to get those, solid coins are gone eventually within minutes: Vcoins, MA, Ebay and the worst part, every single person wants to capitalize on it, and increases prices accordingly- anything mispriced, gets sold momentarily, as a person who deals with financial instruments - You would know that, so no arbitrage here were are those, good old pre-covid days?

 

While bronze disease is a concern, it is very easy to recognize and even easier to treat. If that is all that is keeping you from buying ancient bronzes, then fear not. My only reservation about reassuring you like this is that now there will be yet another person bidding against me in upcoming auctions.

BTW, your new coin is stunning. Congratulations.

 

Thanks! I dont anticipate adding much bronze, though one of the massive Ptolemy bronzes is on my list to get as a type.

 

Yeah I get that but I'm not looking for a "deal", I'm more than willing to pay fair value or even a nice premium, but not the post covid insanity prices. I was lucky and got this coin reasonably but I have started devoting more time recently to my other hobbies like woodworking. I find it less frustrating and more rewarding then trying to buy quality ancients.

 

Same here. Though even with woodworking the prices on quality lumber have exploded too. I figure I’ll finish out the projects I’m working on with the wood I have then I don’t know... maybe learn a new language??

Nice addition btw.

 

I prefer lathe work, so at least my pieces of wood are smaller. Though of extremely high quality and very figured so still relatively expensive. Though I'm pretty stocked up from years ago, so it doesn't affect me as much now.

 

Well, the issue that i see with woodwork:
1. Cost of Carry
2. Storage
3. Logistics

I wouldn’t anticipate the prices for quality pieces to come down in the near future, as a matter of fact - those will continue to raise. A lot of folks want to diversify potfolios and coins have relatively low cost of carry and hustle- free logistics to it, and to be fully honest- quite liquid...Chinese economy rebounded fairly quickly at 18%, so more money available... would do the same thing as i have been doing in the last 3 Quarters: sell sub $200 coins and buy 4-5 figures pieces...

 

But I'm looking at neither woodworking nor numismatics for diversification or as an investment. Both are just hobbies, though typically in both hobbies the quality of material I buy tends to appreciate. And there are some segments of most hobbies that are extremely expensive. For example, even in woodworking, rare/scarce woods that now have import restrictions on them after being added to the CITES list are multiples of the price I could buy them for years ago. Some you can't even find anymore. So it happens all around. Doesn't mean I have to like it or accept it, other than being more selective with what I buy. Which is what I've been trying to do since getting into ancients a couple of years ago.

 

The only issue I see is it's not mine...
Nice coin

Q

 

Came in the mail today, time to get crackin!

 

Okay, I want to know about the reduced cow's milk under the coin holder.

 

Part of the decorative display I put under the piece of glass I had cut for my desk.