I've been seeing a bunch of these Armenian Kingdom, Tigranes II tetradrachms coming up for sale at auction lately (particularly Heritage). There are multiple of them in every sale and they seem to continuously bring prices that outpace what I would expect based on the apparent rarity. There are coins that, although plentiful, bring high prices due to popular demand (Owls, Alexanders, Tyrian Shekel, etc). But this coin seems to be outpacing even those famous types, although I never would have realized that Tigranes II bust coin would be so popular. Is this a rare coin and a hoard was recently discovered? Did a bunch of Syrian/Armenian millionaires decide to start collecting ancient coins all of the sudden? Is there some historical significance or symbolism that I'm missing? Or am I just imagining things? Here is an example, not my coin:
That's an excellent coin! Often times the metal quality and strike quality are only so-so. That coin is far above the average example, in my opinion. A hoard, or hoards, of Tigranes II tetradrachms have been hitting the market. They are also appearing in CNG and Roma auctions. The prices that they are bringing appear quite solid, given the numbers appearing, but it is important to keep in mind that these coins sold for much more before the appearance of the hoard and were considered very rare. My Tigranes II tetradrachm cost me well over $2,000 dollars years ago from CNG, and it is definitely in the VF range grade-wise, with somewhat rough surfaces. Tigranes II "The Great", tetradrachm, 95-56 BC. Bedoukian (CAA) 40 15.8 grams Recently (June 9th specifically) I was presented with a group of these coins by an Israeli dealer. As far as I know they sold for around $1,200 to $1,400 each. I think there might have been some pretty rare varieties included, but I don't collect by variety. How long will these coins appear in such numbers? That's hard to say since the size of the hoard is not known, and apparently coins are entering the market slowly and methodically. I doubt that we are looking at a scenario comparable to that of the gargantuan hoard of classical Athenian owls from Turkey several years ago. This could be a good time of for a collector to pick up a Tigranes II type coin before the hoard is absorbed by the market and prices inch up once again.
Gotcha, thanks a lot for providing some perspective on this type and the trends that I'm observing. And just for the sake of clarity, I'll reiterate that the coin pictured in the opening post is not mine. I agree that it is a fantastic example though, figured that if I was stealing a picture off the internet then I may as well pick a nice one! I primarily collect Roman coins and just started collecting Celtic/English/British coins. But I have a tertiary goal of trying to get one example coin from each "category" of ancients. Looks like this might be the time to fill the Armenian Kingdom slot. Hopefully a beater will come along and fly under the radar!
Yes of course, but they don't have to be millionaires. Just amateurs who can afford 2000 or 3000 $ nice coins. It's a globalized world, with a growing population. In the 1960s there were 3 Billion people on this planet, and collecting ancient coins was mostly a West European and North American hobby. Today there are 8 Billion humans, an important Western educated elite has emerged in Asia and the Arab world, not to mention the formerly communist world, and some of them joined the community of ancient coin collectors. The number of wealthy collectors has grown much faster than the number of coins available on the market...
Yup. No doubt this is a big part of why all the pediodic predictions of the end of ancient coin collecting or collapse of the market keep not coming true, decade after decade. In auctions that show the country of bidder, I often notice I'm bidding against China, Gulf states, Russia, sometimes Latin America. When I sold ancient coins online 10-20 years ago I had buyers on every inhabited continent, and I'm sure there are more now.
