What Your Budget Buys - $75 Edition

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You can find some very interesting RR bronzes in that price range, occasionally silver as well:

Cr. 69/6 Sextans overstruck on Hieron II of Syracuse Poseidon/Trident bronze. $56


Cr. 90/2 anonymous victoriatus. Extremely rare and missing from most major RR silver collections. $74 uncleaned plus a buck or two spent on a lemon, about 1 sq ft of aluminum foil, salt and distilled water to clean it

Cr. 191/3 "VAL" triens. $60

A janus-headed as from an uncertain Roman mint in Sicily(possibly Panormos or Lilybaion). The "AV" or "AN" monogram on the reverse is probably a reference to some quaestor or the period. IMHO these types are undervalued by RR bronze collectors who mainly focus on the "official" Roman issues. Having a small chunk broken or corroded out of this one helps even more. $20

 

My only one

 

i am in love hehe

 

LOL, that is exactly the post I was thinking of

 

When I think of 'the good old days' I include a time when HJB was a specialist in Byzantine coins and had no one on staff who cared about Severans. Then he hired Curtis Clay and all the sleepers dried up. If you look at my catalog of purchases you will find more than one example of a seller who lost my business by hiring someone who knew more than I did about the coins I wanted and started pricing them accordingly. I remember one Baltimore show when I spent a lot of time showing one dealer how to spot Alexandria mint denarii. At the next show, they were no longer in the $20 box. Education can have a downside especially when you are not the one who got educated.

Was this a trick question? I'd guess you would find dozens of that common but popular Maximianus for every commemorative from series II of Claudius no matter what the reverse. I agree the coin would have trouble finding a fan club due to the small flan but it is something some (I, anyway) would like to find.

 

Hey, the ladies haven't been getting enough attention


FAVSTINA AVGVSTA draped bust right. FECVNDITAS S - C Fecunditas standing right, holding long sceptre and infant on outstretched hand. RIC 1639. 12.7 grams! Dupondius--$68.00





IVLIA MAMAEA AVGVSTA Diademed draped bust right VENVS VICTRIX S - C Venus standing holding helmet and sceptre, shield at feet. RIC 705---Sestertius; $62.00

 

Zumbly,
Great idea for an educational post. When I began collecting ancients price range was a complete mystery and as many on this forum have pointed out, it was worth the time to investigate auction results as well as checking with online dealers like VCoins to get a reasonable price range for reference.

In April of 2017 this Marcus Aurelius Dupodius hammered at auction for the starting bid of $60. With the addition of a 15% buyer’s fee plus $10 shipping, delivery to my house came out to $79.00 total. I’m a big fan of Marcus Aurelius in general and bid on this coin just before the auction started because I noticed that there were no other bidders. If it had cost more, say up to a $90 hammer price I still would have been happy. At that hammer price, including the buyer’s fee and shipping, it would still be less than I would pay at a local bricks and mortar shop.



Marcus Aurelius, AE Dupondius, Rome mint struck approximately 178 AD.
Obv: Radiate head right / Rev: Aequitas standing left holding scales and cornucopia.
24 mm, 12.2grams
RIC III 1232; MIR 18, 418-8/50.

 

As a newbie, the "bargain" section on VCoins was terrifying and exciting at the same time. A thread like this helps me figure out what coins fall into this price range. So, I can keep from making too many mistakes. The write ups help too because many people have noted when they overpaid.

Yet another reminder, to me, that among all of the forums that cover one of my hobbies (guns, cars, golf, coins) this ranks as the best. With very few exceptions, people here seem to care enough about the hobby to not only tolerate info suckers like myself, but to encourage us.

Thanks again and sorry for sounding like a suck-up

 

That's okay.

You speak the truth. CT is one of very best. Good format and good posters.

 

I remain concerned that we have seen few coins that could not be called good deals. We see so many obscenely overpriced coins offered that I fear there is someone out there in CT lurker land who has paid $75 for a coin that some of us would offer to a YN as a gift and have them say, "No thanks!" I hope this thread at least suggests that you do not have to be a victim.

 

Man, my record keeping is HORRIBLE, if I didn't buy it at vcoins I have to rely on memory...and that's not going to work (sometimes if I snagged a great deal I had written it on the insert).

Here are some recent vcoins pick ups in that range, I'd say these coins were reasonably priced.

 

Wow think that one wins!

 

Most of my mistakes are on a different scale (unfortunately) so they did not fit the $65-85 bracket.

Loosely related, today I stumbled upon one of most stunning over-estimate hammers while looking up examples of Nysa-Scythopolis provincials. CNG389 lot 477, a bronze of Marcus Aurelius. It's a wonderful design and "unpublished"; not high grade but still cool.

At $500, the estimate seemed to be in the ballpark of reasonable . The hammer was 70x estimate!! $35,000. Thirty-five thousand US dollars plus buyer's premium. Maybe it's a typo?

Next time I lose control or make a mistake, I will take some comfort knowing I'll never come close to being that bidder (edited: those bidders, since obviously there were at least two people who'd lost their minds that day)

 

I don't have access to my database at the moment but here's a group shot that I hope counts:



Regulars have all seen those before, but that was my first ancient coin purchase. A group lot purchased for $65 sight unseen. I purchased them from another forum member.

Later I'll see if I can find some more examples. Not sure if I own an ancient coin that I felt like I over paid...

 

Certainly coins can go 70x estimate or more, but not usually Roman provincials in this grade, unpublished or not. I find that price pretty hard to believe; are we certain it isn't a typo?

 

No, I'm not certain. I haven't asked CNG but will shoot Karen an email tomorrow (at the risk of ruining a good story )

 

Did you read the description? The coin only brought $500; the rest was for the described "artificial green patina". Maybelline is not free.

 

Gosh... I didn't even read the last part of the description! Wow. I'd love to examine that patina in person to better understand how it was done and how to recognize such things in the future.

 

And I missed that you had already suggested it might be a typo in your original post. Not a good day for CT reading comprehension, lol.