Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1537272, member: 19463&quot;]It is always amazing how the prices go on these.&nbsp; This is an nice strike with next to no wear but picky collectors would hit it hard for the top of the owl&#039;s head touching the top of the flan and the rather small amount of crest showing on the helmet.&nbsp; A slightly more spread out flan would double the price of the coin.&nbsp; I once had a friend who specialized in owls and had more than a hundred tetradrachms from archaic to 4th century (he was not a fan of new style).&nbsp; His wife made fun of him because not one of those coins had the nose of Athena touching or clipped by the flan.&nbsp; We would accept a coin far off center losing the back of the head before he would sacrifice a millimeter of nose.&nbsp; If you want to see the whole design, it generally takes at least four coins and all have to be off center to the point they are objectionable.&nbsp; Usually you get more design on late archaic coins before they started making the head so huge it could not fit.&nbsp; You might enjoy seeing a couple coins from acsearch that show the effect on price with being exceptional in some way. The first was struck so hard that it spread the flan showing a lot of design but those edge cracks cut the value in half at least.</p><p><a href="http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=395088" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=395088" rel="nofollow">http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=395088</a></p><p><br /></p><p>This one is archaic style and not all that pretty but shows as much design as any one coin ever does probably explaining the $400000 price realized on only a $35000 estimate.&nbsp; Obviously two rich guys had a fight over this one.&nbsp; </p><p><a href="http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=540222" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=540222" rel="nofollow">http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=540222</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Ordinary owls are common as dirt.&nbsp; Perfect ones are one in a million items.&nbsp; Where we draw the lines of value between $100 and $100000 is very much a matter of who is buying and how much it means to them.&nbsp; I bought the one below despite its wear and test cuts because it is the best centered owl I have ever seen at a price I would consider paying.&nbsp; The three cuts reduced the price by at least 75%.&nbsp; I suspect 95% of collectors would pay several times as much for your coin compared to mine because wear and cuts are more important to more people buy imaging what a coin with your grade and surfaces but my centering would bring.&nbsp; $5k?</p><p>[ATTACH]204540.vB[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in