No, I would not trust that auction. I never heard of them. The coin is really a AV Stater struck 123-19BC Ionia/ Epsesos nothing to do with Cyprus/ Salamis. There seem to be lots of these coming to market/ I will wait till prices come down more.
I did not like the look of that coin and would be reluctant to buy it. The bumps may be normal, but I did not like them. I bought two scale weights from ZN. They were delivered promptly & the weights in hand looked like their pictures, the size & weights matched their descriptions... I give good marks for that. Both were called Byzantine Jewelery Weights. I would call one a coin weight and one a commercial weight.... I did not consider the description a problem. 6 sol coin weight = one Roman ounce one ounce commercial weight
Yes I did.... here are the photos.... lot 19 "Greek coin" 4.80g. 17.2mm. lot 20 "Greek coin" 4.20g. 15.7mm. lot 22 "Cyprus/ Salamis" 3.20g. 17.2mm. lot 23 "Dynasts of Lycia/ uncertain dynasty 0.9g. 10.5mm. Definately need better descriptions
There seem to be a lot of these appearing in auctions/ esp. Heritage (slabbed) Must have found a hoard of them/ hopefully prices will keep dropping Even though descriptions are all over the map/ photos seem legit/ grading "Very Fine" about right. Just the size/ weight/ locales are a "bit off".
Part of their business model is minimal descriptions. Probably saves time and money, which is suitable for a small outfit (I don't know the size of the company though). Several of the newer firms using Biddr do that-- give only the barest minimum description. There can be benefits to the bidders in this scenario, where detailed knowledge of a coin may help you get something rare or interesting for a better price than if it were fully described and bearing a headline "very rare", etc.
I was thinking the same thing You end up getting the deals from obscure venues/ since collectors with deep pockets flock to the higher end auction houses like CNG/ Roma/ Stacks/ Heritage/ Sincona/ Kunker.... I ended up getting a FDC AV Tremissis Honorius from "Golden Lion Auction" site for 800euros/ also a Koln AV Goldgulden from 1554 in EF-MS for 700.
I've bought from zeus a number of times and was never disappointed. Sometimes I don't really have a choice but buying from the less known auctions houses, for financial reasons.
I agree. I love snabbing lots on eBay described as “UNIDENTIFIED ROMAN COIN” etc, where I can 100% identify a juicy snack. Granted, so can everybody else interested but at least it keeps the unformed from running up the bid.
Here is the coin with precise data from upcoming Triton XXV described as: Ionia/ Ephesos AV Stater ND struck circa 123-119BC 8.36g. 20mm. 12h good very fine
