About a year ago, I bought a small bracteate in hand from Allen Berman, a trusted dealer in medieval coins. It came with a small ticket printed on yellow-ish paper giving a detailed and correct attribution as well as an insanely inflated price. Allen had a larger number of generally very attractive coins with these tickets. He immediately told me that the prices on them were not what he was asking for. Yet, I didn't inquire about it and just assumed that they were his own tickets – although it kind of surprised me, since I didn't take Allen for someone who plays the unfortunately popular game of "ask for three times what it's worth and see what happens" at coin shows. Last week, my wins from FSR 111 arrived, including a nice Septimius Severus with a ticket in the same format and design. This leads me believe that these are neither Allen's nor Frank's but come from the stock of a third dealer. Below is a picture of the coins and the two tickets in question. Does anyone here maybe recognize them? Since I'm always a bit obsessed with dealer provenances, I'd be glad to know more.
I never thought the item marking a collectible would become collectible itself! Now, that is what I call irony!
I don't collect old dealer tickets per se, and I don't think anyone else does, so they are not collectibles in the strict sense. Yet, especially with ancient and medieval coins, where third party grading etc. is fortunately still quite uncommon, it's generally desirable to have a documented chain of provenances. When a coin comes with one or more old tickets from good dealers or respected former owners, this both indicates authenticity and proves that the coin was bought and sold legally (always a concern with ancients). This is why many ancient collectors, including myself, religiously keep all old tickets and receipts that come with our coins and also want to know where they come from.
Ah, ok I see! I tend to stay with US coinage, so I didn't know that. It is a nice piece of info to have though, in case I ever want to go into older coins!
I bought a group of low grade Greek from Allen about 10+ years ago and the tags, inc the unrealistic prices, look the same. I think they were originally from Joe S. at Forum Ancients. Not 100% certain, but that might be a good place to start.
They resemble Pegasi tickets, maybe with the identifying info cut-off. Anyone have a Pegasi ticket handy for comparison?
I googled "Pegasi coin ticket" and found some images – it seems you're right on spot. Thanks a lot for your help, @Carausius and @Oldhoopster !
