My life for the next couple of months...

I have to admit I have a terrible, terrible weakness for group lots. I thought I might have gone a little overboard with this one, but now that it's arrived and I have it freshly unpacked, I'm glad I picked it up. It's largely Roman Imperial, but festooned with all kinds of goodies. I could go on at length about many individual pieces, but for now I'll let a picture do the talking.



Happily, they're all unattributed. I have some fun days ahead!

 

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WOW! That's an excellent mixed lot!! Fun fun fun

 

Oh wow! Wonderful, wonderful!!

Just a quick glance and I already see a rare Divvs Vespasian denarius. The tensa facing right is extremely scarce. The obverse should read DIVVS VESPASIANVS AVGVSTVS, unique to this type.

 

The attributions ought to be easy enough, but between the weighing and measuring, photographing, cataloguing and checking against the fake databases, I don't think I'll be seeing much sunlight for awhile .

Thanks! That's definitely one of those that stood out right away. When I did a cursory search for the type I saw a good number with the tensa facing left but no right facing ones. The Domitian As is a flying Victory with an SPQR shield which I currently have down as RIC 421 (R2), but most of my attributions are just a first pass and will need to be checked again. I have my work cut out for me!

 

Wow! Who cares about sunlight anyway.

 

The Divvs Vespasian looks to be a reverse die match with my example and the other two specimens I know of. I'd love to see it individually photographed when you get a chance.

 

That is an incredible mixed lot! There are many auctions with worse quality in individually cataloged coins. You're in for a very enjoyable time!

 

wow => you took a gamble, but it seems to have paid-off "big-time"!!

... I am definitely more a of a sniper rather than a dude that gambles for what's hidden behind Door #2, but again

=> looks like you nailed it, my coin-friend!! (I am very jealous of that fine pile of discs!!)

 

Is that an Otho I see? You must have paid a pretty penny for this lot.

 

Man, the more I look at the lot the more awesome it is! Most amazing of all is that they were sold as a group lot. Most of these coins would have been more profitably sold as individual lots. Fantastic score, my friend!

 

A Tiberius, a Mark Anthony, a Balbinus.....You should make a killing selling this lot. Man, I would love to go through and cherry pick the one's I want.

 

I know, right? I was looking for a Colosseum sestertius buried in there some place. LOL

 

You do realize it is still my birthday month.....

 

LT1 you are new, so you have to stand in line behind me! (oh and wlecome)

 

The group seems obviously a collection of a 'one per' nature. Lots tend to have duplicates at least as far as rulers go but this has Diadumenian, Galba, Otho, Aelius Balbinus, Antony --- to many upscales to be accidental. There are two Hadrians which seems odd but one is a travel special (Alexandria). There are two Aelius'. Where is the Pupienus and the Pertinax? This is suspicious if sold as a group lot. It was a collection.

 

A great welcome, super coin's i love to see them.

 

Great observation DS. You'd make a good detective.

 

It's a better-than-usual mixed lot, with many beautiful coins. One looks fake, though. I hope you don't come across too many of those.

 

I've taken some gambles with mostly unseen lots but this one was definitely more of a snipe... using with a bazooka . Unusually for a lot this size, the pictures provided of both sides of the coins were large and clear enough for me to individually (albeit approximatey) value the majority of the coins. I then took a hefty discount off the assessed total as a margin of safety, accounted for auction fees and arrived at my max bid. The closing price did come right up to my max... figures, eh.

I reckon I could have bought a decent example of a common aureus for what I paid, but I figured I would have more fun with this lot .

I agree that more profit could have been realised if some of the coins were sold individually, but I can see why certain of the more ostensibly valuable coins ended up in a lot. The Otho is ex-jewelry, the Mark Anthony/Octavian has a small edge flaw... don't get me wrong though, they're still great examples and certainly so for me at least. Some of the others, though, I haven't yet discerned any problems with and can't see why they ended up sold in a lot. But I'm sure glad they were.

 

I have no doubt that this was part of a single collection and probably a 'one per', at least at some point. There are quite a few rulers duplicated (apart from the ones you pointed out there are also multiples of Vespasian, Gordian III, Valerian, Gallienus, Probus and others) and many that are missing altogether. I don't know if the collector gave up the 'one per' or it's the case that the coins of the missing rulers were already sold and therefore not part of the group lot. What I do appreciate in this lot is that the collector seems to acquired a few scarce and interesting types, for example a Claudius Gothicus ant with Isis on the reverse, a Maximian with a helmeted military bust like the one Martin showed recently, a very Galba bronze, and a couple of others I'm unfamiliar with. I'm looking forward to more surprises.