new Roman coin

can anyone tell me the grade of this coin it is. It is from between 351 and 354 AD. the Caesar on the head side is C0nstantius Gallus
(updated photo's)

 

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Try some larger images. It's hard to tell based on these.

 

Looks like a Falling Horseman type of some Constantine family member. The grade is at least Fine, but the image is too blurry to say anymore.

 

It actually looks like a pretty nice coin with good detail (even if the images are backwards). I can't make out the mintmark.

 

Mint mark looks off flan, im sure Doug can tell when he sees it due to style maybe?

 

It is a slightly rough surfaced aVF with mintmark off flan but probably Constantinople worth something a bit under 10% of the sales price. Some will say I'm hard on coins missing the mintmarks and, therefore not fully identifiable and others will say I'm hard on rough surfaces but $125???
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CONSTANTIUS...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

I believe that eBay now forbids posting grades on coins except those provided by TPC slabbers so the coin is eBay ungradable. I suspect NGC would return a VF 4 strike 2 surface but the coin is not worth the cost of a slab.

 

By the way, that eBay seller is... interesting. Prices are sometimes 10x higher than comparable items recently sold elsewhere. Most of the coins are of lower quality.

However, I have bought two coins from him. I used the 'make offer' button after researching comps and deciding what I was willing to pay for each. After submitting the massively reduced bids, the acceptance and invoice email took approximately 20 seconds to arrive (ie, I probably would have succeeded with an even lower offer). Neither were earth-shattering deals or popular coins but for various reasons I wanted them.

Anyway, browsing that store can be very entertaining... great abdominal workout from all the laughing... but you just might find something you want and don't be afraid to make an offer that is a mere fraction of the asking price.

Have to also say that he is the fastest shipper I've ever seen. Coins in the mail hours later both times.

 

$125???!!!! This makes me sad and angry. I really wish folks would take the time to study, ask questions and learn the coinage and market before they bought anything pricey. That's a $30 coin at best, sold by one of the worst mark-up shysters on eBay. Bad, bad, bad.

 

I agree with JA. This seller preys on those who don't know better. Yes, like TIF says, he will take much reduced offers, but you know he is hoping for that sale to someone who thinks he/she is getting a bargain on a 2000 year old coin. Guys like this need to be put out of business by knowledgeable collectors not doing in business with him and warning others of his tactics.

You're right JA. BAD, BAD, BAD!!!!!

 

Yes, that is his tactic. But buyer beware applies.

For the listings I've checked there is no overt fraud going on. Just crazy prices. I'm not saying he's going to win any ethics awards, but he can stick a million dollar price tag on them if he wants. Doesn't mean anything.

Hopefully the unfortunate folks who overpay will subsequently learn more about ancient coins and not make the same mistake again.

 

I'm a proponent of free markets, so I believe he has every right to ask a million dollars for a coin if he wants to. I'm just saddened when somebody actually pays it because if they were armed with even a little knowledge, they would do much better for themselves.

 

Maybe, because new buyers are not aware that LRB's can be bought cheaply, they assume that the only genuine ones are the highest priced, therefore they must be authentic and all the others are fake?? that seller, Low prices/high ratings.....he must be rolling about with laughter himself.

 

I only bought it for 40$ on sale

 

I wish I could say I just won't buy from sellers that play the price game but this one has had several coins I wanted including one I wanted very much. That one was $1000 and worth $300 to me. I did not make an offer. I still wonder who bought it and what they paid. Later he had a different coin starting at $1000 but being offered at a great discount so I offered half the discount price and got the coin. Moral: If you see one you want, bid and bid low. If you offend someone; tough. You may get one coin in a hundred using this offensive technique but that is one more than you get by ignoring such offensive prices.

 

Hear, hear!!

 

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......that guy.

yeah.

i'll have nothing to do with him.

 

At risk of being considered the devil's advocate, I'll point out that other than the prices the write ups in question are well done and would be a real service to the target audience that care to read them. He obviously knows a lot about the subject and offers a reasonable selection of nice coins mixed in with the usual trash. For the most part, I even agree with the relative prices; it is just that they are 5-10 times what you might expect from other dealers. I have been told by several dealers that buying coins is harder than selling them. I know one dealer who was concerned that he had sold too many coins on Friday to make it worth going to a show on Saturday. Was he selling too cheap? I'll never say that! A dealer can decide if he is going to make $1 on a thousand sales or $1000 on just one sale (assuming you make that one sale). We all see this in every dealer to a degree. We only take offence when we consider it ridiculous. Perhaps it is like how oppressed the Romans felt with a 1/2% sales tax and how Caligula was so proud to repeal it that he issued a coin commemorating it. Few of us recall a tax that low and don't feel oppressed until we travel to a place that has it worse than we do. Does that mean I will be buying coins for 10x reasonable? Unlikely --- at least not too often.

 

True....we all know he is trying to score big on a few poor chumps. If you look at his feedback, you'll see he gladly accepts lower bids. Do those that fall for it deserve it for not shopping or researching? Well, I don't know. However, it give me some insight to this guys character. I'm all for everyone asking for what the prices they want, and behaving in a manner of their choosing....and i choose to never give this guy one red cent of my money.

Would he ship out something he knew (or suspected) was a well done fake that would fool the average collector (or below average..like me!)

I also don't know. But considering his track record for being forthright... I'm not taking the chance. I just don't trust him any farther than I can throw him.

 

Just speaking for myself :

I believe sellers have the right to set their prices as they like. Unfortunately this one is just blatantly out to fleece the ignorant, and this sort of business really leaves a bad taste in my mouth. He probably fleeces enough such that he still averages out very nicely in spite of the many 'lowball' offers he presumably accepts.

He actually has quite a few coins I'd like to buy at 1/5th or 1/10th his listed prices, but if I had the choice I just wouldn't support his business. It's a good thing for me then that the hobby of collecting coins is all about choices.

 

Thanks for mentioning that, Doug. I forgot to.

It feels a bit uncomfortable posting positive things about this seller, yet there are positives to be fairly said! The attributions I've looked at, including the two I've bought, appear to be correct based on the online resources I've checked. The coins were sent with nice write-ups as well and I like that he includes pertinent history in his listings.

It would be interesting to do a few test purchases to see if he has a set formula for his pricing. I gather from my experience with using the Make Offer option (with him and another seller) that eBay sellers set it up with a pre-set minimum and if your offer meets or exceeds it, the offer is accepted immediately. I suspect this seller sets up a ~800-1000% higher price for BIN/MakeOffer, leaving his sale items (all seem to be 71% off) with further room for bargaining.

While most of the coins are at the lower end of quality, with his inventory of ~7000 coins at the moment there are likely to some interesting things. The two I bought last year were uncommon and no one else had any examples for sale during the window in which I was looking.

I wish I'd written down the original asking price for the Julia Domna/ithyphallic Priapus coin I bought from him. It was many hundreds if I recall. I offered $60 and it was accepted. Good lucking finding other examples of this specimen in any condition!



CNG archives has only 2 Julia Domna/Priapus sales, one with these dies and one with a different style reverse. Check out the condition of them and their hammers:
http://cngcoins.com/Search.aspx?IS_ADVANCED=1&ITEM_IS_SOLD=1&ITEM_INVENTORY_NUMBER=&CONTAINER_NAME=&ITEM_LOT_NUMBER=&ITEM_DESC=julia domna priapus&SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_1=1&SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_3=1&SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_2=1&SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_4=1&VIEW_TYPE=0