Tonight's Heritage Auction

I see that @Orfew got a long-sought-after coin for his Flavian collection. I picked up three for my Faustina subcollection (and lost a Faustina II middle bronze).

One of the first lifetime issues of Faustina I:



A scarce veiled bust sestertius of the AETERNITAS series featuring Providentia standing:



The elusive Middle bronze of Faustina II with the MATRI MAGNAE reverse type:



And I did NOT win this one; rather, I was ASTONISHED at the hammer price. It had an estimate of $100-200.

 

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Congrats, beautiful coins. Some of these prices are crazy as with the one you missed !!!

 

Wow @Roman Collector that first one is a stunner! Congrats as well on your other wins. Any idea why that Herrenius went so high? I would not have guessed that outcome.

 

Nice! Love the Matri Magnae especially, but i would have been tempted by them all.

 

Congrats! I like the Faustina lifetime denarius very much.

$100-$200 is an awfully low estimate for a Herennius as Augustus issue, but the closing price for that particular example seems about twice as much as it ought to be. I guess when it comes to types as rare as that one, all it takes is two bidders who really want it to send the prices up.

 

Congrats with the additions @Roman Collector! I like the Faustina I lifetime issue, in which year was it struck?

 

@Roman Collector ....Lovely coins, really like all three!
Great toning on the lifetime issue....
Both the bronzes have nice detail, tough to find in this condition at a reasonable price.
Super pick ups... Congrats Paul

 

138-139, after Pius was given the title Pater Patriae. See this thread.

 

All wonderful coins! My favourite is the Faustina denarius, the toning is exquisite.

I did not win anything...perhaps I am missing something because I’m relatively new to this, but the prices at all these January actions have been outrageous. While I have been lucky in a few auctions, I was outbid most of the time. In this auction, I only bid on a Geta dupondius, which I have been eyeing for months, and my bid was the runner up.

 

Congrats on the new coins!

As I just wrote in Al's thread, I binged last night and won 6 coins .

Here's one that escaped: a brockage tetradrachm of Vabalathus. I have no brockages nor coins of Vabalathus so this was appealing. Like two birds soaring upwards as they fight for dominance, another bidder and I wanted the coin badly so up went the price. And up. And up. Eventually I quit. Perhaps the winner would have gone twice as high or more. I believe the coin is worth even more than the eventual hammer but I had a bunch of other bids out and had already won several coins.

(not my coin )

 

Thanks for the answer @Roman Collector!

 

If I knew more about ancient coins and their value, I would be first in line to buy a graded collection. And heritage auction is one of the best places to buy them.

 

If you knew more about ancient coins you generally wouldn't need or desire to have them graded/slabbed. The recent push by NGC to beef up their Ancients department seems primarily aimed at luring uneducated collectors into buying with confidence.

I'm not a slab lover but in fairness to NGC I do respect David Vagi and Barry Murphy, the two numismatists who are the ancient coin department at NGC. They do not guarantee authenticity (they only guarantee the grade, which is of course not that important) although once again, to be fair, they are extremely experienced and knowledgeable of fakes and their detection, plus it would be very bad for business if too many fakes slip through. So, while they don't guarantee authenticity, an NGC-slabbed ancient coin is not likely to be a modern fake.

There are many, many, many threads on CT about slabbing ancient coins, and the majority (vast majority?) of collectors do not want their coins slabbed. A few don't care one way or another, and a tiny number will only buy slabbed coins. Most of us don't mind buying them (we crack them out) and there is no need to pay a premium for a slabbed coin. Grades are far less important in the ancient coin collecting realm than they are in the modern coin world.

 

Why is that? A slab Coin identifies/verifies authenticity and maintains or protects against climatic evolution

 

Sorry, I was editing my post while you asked the question and I addressed it in the revision.

A slab neither guarantees authenticity (see my post above) nor protects against all environmental hazards. Bronze disease can develop in a slab... then what do you do? Toning can proceed (often a good thing... although toning would be faster out of a slab, if you want the coin to tone).

As for identification, the limited space on a slab label barely scratches the surface of the identification. Most ancient coin collectors are capable of basic identification or even in-depth identification. You will want and need far more information than the speck included on the label.

 

Congrats on the nice coins @Roman Collector - apparently I need to raise my bids to do more than increase the auction house’s return (and prices paid by others).

 

These currently uneducated collectors are the future of our hobby. Many will become educated collectors in time and will cast-off the training wheels of slabs. I have no problem with slabs encouraging new or modern collectors to take the plunge into ancient coins.

 

I was not interested in that coin, but I can see why others would be. The reverse is VICTORIA GERMANICA. It is RIC (IV, part III) 154, "R2". If you collect victories or, more specifically, victories over the Germans, on coins, that one is very hard to get. I checked acsearch and there are several, most of which went for $600 - $1600. I'd say it went "high", but not "very high" for the type.

 

Nice going RC! I really like the portrait of Faustina I on the 1st one. -d

 

And most important of all,you need to handle the coin to feel all the history it's been through to appreciate it......