Who are the confirmed bottom feeders here?

Marcus Agrippa, Issue by Caligula, 39 – 40 AD
Æ As, Rome Mint, 29mm, 10.96 grams

Obverse: M AGRIPPA L F COS III, Bare head of Agrippa left.
Reverse: S C, Neptune standing left holding dolphin and trident.

References:
RIC58

Cost:
70 cents

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Funny thread, I look forward to joining some day. I have some coins that would definitely qualify, particularly from my younger collecting days, but no ancients of this nature yet

 

A little mouse with steely teeth nibbled a bit off this Qarakhanid chocolate-colored fals. But I love the medieval television set at the obverse. 26 mm, 2.10 gr., issued in what's now Uzbekistan about the year 1000 AD. A rare type, I never saw another offered. I had it for 5 dollars.

 

No way, 70 cents? I'd like to hear the story on that.

 

Thank you @Sallent , for creating a post honoring our not so beautiful budget coins! Here's one that I have a fondness for even though it's scratched up pretty badly. I obtained a few of these in much better condition eventually.

Antigonus II Mattathias
(Hebrew: מתתיהו אנטיגונוס השני‎‎, Matityahu)

This coin was minted under the last Hasmonean king of Judaea. Antigonus came to an unfortunate end and was either beheaded, crucified, or both by the Romans in 37 BC. These are interesting in that the flans were created from molds with two halves which rarely aligned.

 

I like cheap coins and I like expensive coins. I like ugly coins and I like beautiful ones too. I just like ancient coins and because I don't ever intend to sell them my interest is somewhat decoupled from price considerations (so long as I can afford them).

Like @Alegandron my favorite coins are historically interesting and preferably tell a neat story/have an interesting purpose.

That being said I will also say that I am a proud bottom feeder when I like the coin


Valentinian I AE3 (364-375)
Obv.: D N VALENTINIANVS P F AVG - Diademed, draped bust right
Rev.: GLORIA ROMANORVM - Valentinian, holding labarum, advancing right dragging captive by the hair.

Elagabalus Antoninianus
Attribution: RIC IV 1
Date: 218 AD
Obverse: IMP CAES M AVR ANTONINVS AVG, Radiate draped cuirassed bust right
Reverse: P M T-R P COS P P, Roma seated left on shield holding Victory in right hand and sceptre in left
Size: 21.9 mm
Weight: 4.5 grams

 

~scoff~

Ya'll are amateurs. 15¢ Each:


Imperial Rome
Maximian, r. 286-310 A.D. (291 A.D.)
Rome Mint, Billon Antoninianus, 21.35mm x 3.1 grams
Obv.: IMP MAXIMIANVS P F AVG, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right
Rev.: HERCVLI PACIFERO, Hercules standing left holding branch and club, lion skin over arm, XXIε in ex.
Ref.: SRCV 13131 variety


Imperial Rome
Licinius I, r. 308-324 A.D.
Rome Mint, AE Follis, 22.1mm x 3.2 grams
Obv.: IMP LIC LICINIVS PF AVG, laureate head right
Rev.: IOVI CONSERVATORI AVGG NN, Jupiter standing facing head left, chlamys on shoulder, holding Victory on globe and leaning on scepter, eagle with wreath l, A in right field, SIS in ex.
Ref.: SRCV 15249


Roman Provincial - Moesia Inferior
Gordian III, r. 238-244 A.D.
Marcianopolis Mint, AE27, 26.61 mm x 10.9 grams
Obv.: M ΑΝΤΩΝΙΟC ΓΟΡΔΙΑΝΟϹ ΑVΓ, ΑVΤ Κ Μ in ex. Laureate draped and cuirassed bust of Gordian right, facing bust of Serapis left wearing kalathos on head
Rev.: ΥΠ ΜΗΝΟΦΙΛΟΥ ΜΑΡΚΙΑΝΟΠΟΛ ΙΤΩΝ. Demeter standing facing, wearing kalathos, grain in right hand, long torch vertical behind in left hand


Byzantine Empire
Leo VI, r. 886-912 A.D.
AE Follis/40 Nummi, 25.92 mm x 6.1 grams
Obv.: LEON bASILEVS ROM. Crowned bust facing with short beard, wearing chlamys, holding akakia
Rev.: + LEON/ EN QEO BA/ SILEVS R/ OMEON. legend in four lines
Ref.: SBCV 1729


Byzantine Empire
Basil II and Constantine VIII, r. 976-1025 A.D.
AE Follis/40 Nummi, Type A2, 32.92 mm x 13.6 grams
Obv.: +ΕΜΜΑΝΟVΗΛ. I̅C̅ left, X̅C̅ right. Bust of Christ facing, wearing nimbus crown, pallium and columbium, holding book of gospels
Rev.: +ΙhSЧS / XRISTЧS / bASILℇЧ / bASILℇ. in four lines, T Below
Ref.: SBCV 1813


Byzantine Empire
Alexius I Comnenus, r. 1081-1118 A.D.
Thessalonica mint AE Tetarteron, 18.69 mm x 3.6 grams
Obv.: [TW KOMHN]. Crowned facing bust of Alexius, wearing loros, holding cross-tipped sceptre and cross on globe
Rev.: Jeweled cross with globe at each end, X in centre, on two steps, C Φ A Δ in the corners, clockwise from first quadrant
Ref.: SBCV, 1931

To be fair, these came in a bag of 144 uncleared coins I got for $20. Technically about 14¢ each, but these are the only ones I have identified so far. Fairly certain I've got another Maximian soaking...

 

I could probably post 60% of my coins here, depending on how you want to define bottom feeding exactly.

Here are some that will meet anyone's definition.

1$



28$




Here are a couple coins I picked up out of some cheapo mixed lots, I don't know how much I payed for the really. Probably works out to 5 bucks each. These coins were really fun to ID, they were such a cool mix of coins.

 

My most recent feeding.

 

Found in a batch of $2 crusties, after some heavy zapping:

Vitellius
Imperator, 69 A.D.
Bronze As
Spanish (Tarraco?) mint
Obv: A VITELLIVS - IMP GERMAN
Rev: VICTORIA AVGVSTI - Victory, with shield inscribed S P Q R, between S and C
RIC 46
29mm, 8.4g.

 

Who do I talk to get acquire my membership? What are the benefits of being a member? Do I get discounts on grading my coins? Is there a monthly magazine? Are there clubs I can attend to meet fellow Bottom Feeders? Is my membership a given fact?

 

I can not post scans due to lack of knowledge and equipment. In the past I have traded various items by sending all of my duplicates and my want list. The receiver takes what he wants and returns the rejects and the items I want. If you assign a base value to each item then calculating boot works well and easily. Trust is the key. If you were trading only high grade and valuable items the risk would be that your nice item would be swapped out for a not so nice identical piece. I have done this with postal covers, tokens, military insignia, magazines and books. It should work equally well with low grade ancient coins. Later this year - after I have made a proper want list - I will try a similar trade here. I intend to call it a PIG IN A POKE WITH A TWIST. The pig is no photos and using coin shop attributions. The twist is traders see my coin in hand along with my want list. They then send me one coin from my want list for each coin they take of similar grade OR two lower grade coins from my want list. Right now I'm trying to make a rulers type set. I burned a $500 store credit and took an entire inventory of identified ancients. There were not nearly as many different as I hoped leaving me many duplicates.

 

Proud bottom feeder here.



Here is my favourite that I've show several times. It's a bronze Shekel of Jerusalem.



A couple more fun ones:



Yay!

Erin

 

View attachment 673693 View attachment 673694 View attachment 673695 View attachment 673696

 

I am pretty much a full-time bottom feeder. I don't have neither the funds nor the attention span to make a want list. Also, I like surprises. If something comes along cheap, I generally will research it, get interested in its historical background, and learn a few things. Here are a couple of random examples of deals that came from scrounging eBay:





Price: $16.27
Indo-Greek Kings Drachm
Antialkidas (c. 115-95 B.C.) Draped bust right, wearing kausia; BASILEWS NIKHFOROU ANTIALKIDOU / Zeus left, with Nike and scepter. Forepart
of elephant left Kharoshthi legend around: maharajasa jayadharasa /amtialikidasa. Mionnet IV, 53; Sear 7300-7303

This next one is the cheapest ancient I've ever found - less than 2 bucks. It has a very blotchy green and black patina that makes it hard to photograph, but it has a very nice portrait of Trajan Decius under there:




Price: $1.80
Trajan Decius
Æ Sestertius (249-251 A.D.)
IMP C M Q TRAIANVS DECIVS AVG, laureate & cuirassed bust right / VICTORIA AVG S-C, Victory advancing left with wreath & palm branch. Cohen 117; Sear 9410; RIC 126d. (15.76 g / 28 mm)

So sign me up for the Bottom Feeders Club.

 

Your Constantine reminded me of this Hadrian Alexandria Tetradrachm I picked up for $5 or so some years ago. It always made me think of him sneezing so hard that he blew-off the laminated surface. Constantine evidently had a truly mighty sneeze and blew the whole chord of the coin away!

 

I never know what to say I paid when I get a bulk lot for a price. If you bought 250 coins with two winners and 248 losers, those two were pretty expensive and certainly not $2 each. I end up assigning prices to each coin that add up to the total but are not equal numbers for all. I recently bought 34 coins for just a bit over $1000 to which I assigned values between $5 and $150. I might have been better making those numbers $0 and $160 but truth will never be known because many of the coins will never be resold (some kept, some donated). The few I did sell at least gave me a value to assign that had some meaning. I have avoided listing any of my bulk lot purchases here for the purposes of this thread even though some did fit the $21-40 span. The barbarous Antoninus Pius below was an average coin in the group with about as many 'better' as there were 'lesser' and got listed in this range but that is nothing more than opinion. The difference is whether you like barbarous or not.

 

About 150 of the coins were attributable, 100 were useless slugs, and about 75 were ones that you might want in a collection, so you are right, the price actually goes up on a per coin basis. As I mentioned in another thread I am done with lots of uncleaned coins, cleaning them is difficult and it is better to get nice coins on an individual basis. I'm buying about one coin a week these days.

 

Do you mean there is something else besides bottom feeding?


Saecular Games sestertius of Domitian
Obv. IMP CAES DOMIT AVG GERM P M TR P VIII CENS PER P P
Rev. COS XIIII LVD SAEC FEC S C, Domitian sacrificing from patera over altar, Tellus reclining at left, on right Victimarius holding sacrificial pig, lyreplayer and fluteplayer in background. 35mm, 25.1 gm. BMC 425, Cohen 84, RIC II : 378 (r3).

 

I live on the bottom.......



Severus Alexander AE Sestertius. AD 231
IMP ALEXANDER PIVS AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right
IOVI PROPVGNATORI, Jupiter standing right, naked except for cape flowing to right
brandishing thunderbolt. S-C across fields.
Rome mint, 19.5 g. 30.26 mm