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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Only a Poor Old Man, post: 7464465, member: 111037&quot;]In most cases, frustration leads to rush decisions that most people regret down the line. Occasionally though, it can provide the extra strength required to make a move that we otherwise would hesitate to perform. The purchase of the coin I am about to present to you is the later case. A few days ago I was participating with gusto and determination in the last Roma auction. I had decided in advance to take an aggressive stance and walk out with my intended targets, even if it meant that I would stretch my coin budget to its limit. A coin that wasn&#039;t a target of mine, but nevertheless was interesting enough to notice, was lot 640, a Side tetradrachm of the type with the huge advancing Nike on the reverse. That coin sported an impressive Athena helmet on the obverse, and at that point had a £500 bid on it. I said to myself nice coin, I should get one of those when I get the chance. To cut a long story short, my targeted bids failed in a spectacular fashion. I thought it was going to be a last second battle, but I had been maxed out on all my bids with hours to spare. I thought to myself that if the competition stays as strong as this, I should perhaps drop coins and start collecting butterflies (says without a hint of knowledge of the butterfly auction scene. Maybe the butterfly collectors are thinking about switching to coins instead). </p><p><br /></p><p>Engulfed with disappointment, I went through the auction results the next day to stare in disbelief at the prices realised. When I reached lot 640, I saw that it hammered for £2000. Very strong price, considering that the reverse had not in my opinion the wow factor . Out of curiosity and with no plan in mind, I browsed through vcoins and mashops to see if there was a decent example available for sale. I wasn&#039;t really going after one, I just wanted to get an idea of the retail prices out there. And then I saw her standing there... It was love at first sight. A proud and cocky Nike advancing to the left without a care in the world. I could almost hear her whispering to me &#039;Just Do It!&#039;. The obverse was the usual Athena in a Corinthian helmet in good detail and style. On the reverse the legends were clear and the cherry on the top was actually a big pomegranate. Nature&#039;s silliest fruit, I never cared much for those really.. But the&nbsp; undisputed highlight of the coin was that fabulous Nike. One detail left that I hadn&#039;t checked yet was the price. I was surprised to see that it wasn&#039;t as bad as I expected, but still more than I ever have spent on a coin if you exclude my Athenian tet. On any other day I would have said, &#039;nah, still too much&#039;, but on that day the frustration from last night&#039;s auction took over and before I knew it my credit card had taken a hit that it will take a while to recover from. Well, here it is. It arrived today and in hand it is even more impressive as it was on the picture:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1293050[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>What do you think? I think that it is a very nice example for the type. It comes with a provenance too. An auction result from 2008. That was a surprise really and it made me feel much better about my over-spending. Somebody back then obviously liked the coin so much that it hammered for 2600 Swiss Francs. That is 3 times more than I paid for it now in 2021. It is a prime example that when it comes to coins the prices can go down as well as up.</p><p><br /></p><p>You may wonder now what is the &#039;tragedy&#039; bit I mentioned in the thread title. Well, the coin did arrive today, but the actual delivery date was supposed to be days ago. On the expected date I checked the tracking information expecting to see it having arrived at Heathrow, but to my bemusement it said that it was in Indianapolis Indiana. I live in London UK, and the coin was shipped from a European country. There was no logical explanation whatsoever on why it should be in the States. It stayed there for a couple of days and then it started moving... This time to Memphis Tennessee. My coin was touring the US... Maybe my Nike is a Dolly Parton fan. Maybe it wanted to see the world before it ends up in my cabinet. After days of panicked emails to the sender and the shipper, and a potential stomach ulcer from the stress, it finally arrived.. Happy ending, Yippeeeee.... I guess it had to happen to me too, I just joined the bonkers coin shipping experience club.</p><p><br /></p><p>A few words now about the historical aspects of the coin. Surprisingly, we don&#039;t know that much. Or at least I couldn&#039;t find much. It is from Pamphylia, a Greek colony on the Asia Minor coast, but one that is definitely off the beaten track (between Lycia and Cilicia). Even though small in size, it was a cosmopolitan place. It was a mixture of Greek colonists, Hitite remnants, and Cilicians. Later colonists could not understand the Greek spoken there as it had evolved into an amalgamation of the various dialects. &#039;Pamphylia&#039; actually means &#039;place of all tribes&#039;. Some of the most important settlements were Aspendos and Side which many of us know had a very rich coin minting tradition. The area spend much of its time under Persian administration, but after Alexander&#039;s conquest and by the time of this coin, it was under Seleukid domination. There must have been some degree of autonomy though as evident from the coinage that bears magistrate names. The one of this coin is ΔΕΙΝΟ...something, alas we don&#039;t really know, unless someone here has found a source with more information. Side specifically was a major trading centre that enjoyed great prosperity due to its strategic harbour and advanced infrastructure. Seleukid rule came to an end in 190 BC, when the Rodians allied with the Romans defeated Antiochos the Great, leading to it being replaced by an Attalid rule from Pergamon. Side however maintained its autonomy and prosperity. It is worth noting that &#039;Side&#039; means pomegranate which explains their common appearance on coinage going back into the archaic times. I am not sure why there is such a prominent Nike on the reverse, a design that lasted for centuries. Perhaps some of you know. Please share any sources you are aware of.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I hope you enjoyed this presentation (I apologise if much of it is actually a rant). Please share your Pamphylian coins, coins With Nike on them, coins that went on a world tour like this one did, or anything else that you think is relevant.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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