What Your Budget Buys - $500 Edition

This Roman Republic issue of the moneyer Plautius Plancus is notorious for poor centering and flat strikes, but it was very close to the top of the list of RR coins that I wanted, so my plan was to keep waiting for a good one, and hope that it would fall within my budget. As impressively hideous as a full-on facing head of Medusa is, it's really the reverse that makes this issue for me. When I saw how (relatively) well struck and centered the reverse of this example was, and that the coin had the sort of lovely old collection toning I love, it was kind of like all of those four beautiful, on-flan horses' heads were singing to me. As is often the case when a particular coin sings to me, I was prepared to go higher than was sensible for this one, but at the end of auction day, I won it for a bit less than my max. My final price after buyer's premium and shipping was about $550. I was happy to let them take my money .


ROMAN REPUBLIC
AR Denarius. 4.03g, 18mm. Rome mint, 47 BC, L. Plautius Plancus, moneyer. Crawford 453/1c; CRI 29a; Sydenham 959b. O: L.PLAVTIVS, facing mask of Medusa with disheveled hair. R: Aurora flying right, holding a palm branch and conducting the four horses of the Sun; PLANCVS below.

 

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Some gorgeous coins, I would gladly welcome any of them in my collection !!

During the last five years there are only two coins in the 500 price range


Mark Antony, Denarius Struck at a travelling mint, moving with Mark Antony in 41 BC
ANT AVG IMP III VI R P C, Head of Mark Antony right
Fortuna standing left, holding rudder in right hand and cornucopiae in left; at feet, stork; below, PIETAS COS
3,82 gr - 20 mm
Ref : Crawford # 516/2, Sydenham # 1174, HCRI # 241, C # 77



Nerva, Antoninianus Rome mint AD 250/251
DIVO NERVAE Radiate head right
CONSECRATIO Large altar
4.25 gr
Ref : RIC IV # 84b, Cohen # 153, RCV # 9469
in qblay's catalog : NE01/P260


And just to start singing "things were better and easier back then", this one cost me $400 ....in 1993


Julius Caesar, Denarius minted in Italy, c.49 BC
CAESAR, elephant walking rigth, trampling on snake
No legend, Simpulum, sprinkler, axe and apex
4.05 gr
Ref : HCRI # 9, RCV #1399, Cohen #49

Q

 

Well done! Always really liked that coin!

 

Just FYI, in the U.S., inflation would have made this $400 coin worth $688 today.

However, I'm sure that the market value of this excellent example has increased its value far more than inflation.

 

Man, that's a pretty cool coin, Parthicus

 

Why not continue the series??? While I do not have any coins in the 600, 700 or 800 price bracket myself, I am sure I would not be the only one here who would like to see even MORE highlights in the shape of rare, splendid, or just outrageously expensive coins

 

My last three cars didn't cost $800. Of course, I'm a bottom feeder when it comes to vehicles, which drives my wife nuts.

So, yes, I like the idea of keeping this going. Seeing coins worth more than my beater Subaru will be a lot of phone.

 

I too think this type of thread should keep going -- its range of pricing will be an extremely valuable reference for new collectors in any price range.

I would suggest that the next ranges become fairly large, say, $600 - $1000, $1000 - $1500, and then finally $1500 and above.

 

Thanks for the comments and suggestions about having this thread series continue, guys, I appreciate it.

One reason I picked this bracket to stop this series has already been mentioned in my first post - I feel that its usefulness to the beginner is limited past a certain point. Another reason is that I suspect members' ability and desire to participate past $500 will result in relatively few coins shown for what will be increasingly wider price ranges.

I felt from the start that this series would better illustrate the price of coins available in the lower price ranges, where actual sales records online are harder to come by (ie., major auction sales records tend to be for more expensive coins, prices of sold coins on Vcoins show their list prices and not necessarily what they actually were sold for) and would also help capture what some of our members were able pick up at coin shows or their local coin shops.

I'm currently preparing an index post to collect links of all the past threads for future reference. I'll hopefully get that posted soon. Thanks again for your feedback and to everyone again for their participation!

 

While I agree with everything you've noted here, I also think higher-priced threads would be useful even for lower-budget new collectors to illustrate what they might have to pay for coins in better condition. It would also help set their expectations for difficult-to-find coins. Not everyone will pay for ACSEARCH's service that includes the auction's hammer price on every coin that is turned up in a search.

Just a thought.

 

I agree with this as well. What I would do here is to browse a site like sixbids.com for plenty of eye candy in the higher price brackets, and then do a search in CNG's sales archive to find the hammer prices of what I may be looking for. With coming on 300,000 sold items, CNG's archive is a great place to start researching prices for almost any major type.

 

I would love to see this idea continued to include higher price brackets. Not everyone has the same approach. That is, not everyone starts out collecting by purchasing lower value coins. The first ancient coin I ever bought was an Otho denarius.

 

If we are not to have the upper bracket threads of this series, perhaps we can think of another series of posts that will reinforce the points made here for the benefit of beginners. One that comes to mind would be a set of several similar, related coins that would cover a range of prices and explain why the 'same' coins might rate different prices. One obvious set would be condition grades. Another might be a set of three or more similar coins all in a similar grade that might merit different values based on points that might not be obvious to beginners. This could be differences in style, minor faults, strike, surface all on coins that might be VF, for example. We might even need to point out that some reverses are premium and some are considered boring within a single ruler's coins. What thread series would benefit beginners even a fraction as much a has this one we are now completing?

 

I'm sure @zumbly would be OK with someone else taking over the series, and doing the higher brackets. Volunteers?

 

I think this would be a great idea and very educational. I recall there being several excellent webpages, including your own, on the topic of grades and condition, but nothing covering pricing differentials between grades.

Absolutely! If anyone is keen to pick this up where I leave off, please do not hesitate .

 

My most expensive coin.. at around $500

 

I hadn't thought of this and heartily recommend that we start with a thread that shows three coins of similar types but in distinctly different price ranges. The problem is, how do we do that since few members own such a range of coins... any suggestions?

Also, can someone start the $600 - $1000 thread?

I will start the $1000 - $1500 thread a little later.

 

That would indeed be quite helpful. We should start a separate thread each for Athens owls, Alexander tetradrachms, Tarentum nomoi, COL NEMs, stylistic differences on coinage, etc. It could make for a very instructive resource, more-so than just priceguides.

I know when I was a child starting collecting US coins I looked at the BU columns in the old Blue Books and thought my Mercury Dimes were worth thousands. The same sort of misinformation could be occurring in pricing to beginners in ancients where it's much easier to deceive as "MS" could have a massive range associated with it.

 

I have a pair that I bought for $500 apiece, from a fellow named Phil, at a place called HJB.

I've shown them before. They come from the same hoard. I still await the publication of the hoard examination. I like how they represent the longevity of a coins circulation and the geographic mobility of a coin.




I have two others in the range (a bit over on Nero)

$525 CNG

$575 CNG

details in the gallery

 

Excellent suggestion!