Limes

From my personal experience, I had a lot of trouble taking pictures of my only golden coin. The photo shown below is attempt no. I-dont-know-how-many. I've used different background colours, yellow, white, blue, black and this one, dark grey. And took photos in different lighting: day, evening, sunlight, clouded, artificial lighting, and so on. This one was taken on a clouded day, when the light was sort of gray if you know what I mean. 

My advice, since you asked: keep trying until your are statisfied. That's basically it. I don't have an advice about a set up, since I dont have any. But members of this board, as mentioned above, have professional set ups, and likely better camera's and/or lenses. As I don't feel like investing in that kind of equipment, this it what it is, for me. Which I'm fine with. 

Good luck experimenting with your photoshoot 🙂

16 hours ago, Salomons Cat said:

Stupid question from someone who doesn't own a gold coin and has never seen one:
How is the visibility of the details of an average ancient gold coin when you hold it in your hand compared to silver?

Interesting question. I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer it, since I have only one gold issue, but I think there's no difference. In hand both appear better than on photo's where e.g. scratches are more visible. 

Thats a lovely toned siliqua Rasiel. Can you give some more info on the coin itself? 

Toning in combination with ancient coins is something peculiar. I remember my grandmother cleaning/polishing her table silver, that would turn grey/blackish over and over again. But somewhere, someone decided that on ancient coins it enhances the beauty of the coin. Would the ancients have done with their silver, clean it? 

Anyway, having said that, I do like toning. Every now and then I see if the toning on my coins has changed. I noticed that the siliqua shown below darkened a bit and developed addition 'rainbow' colouring. I tried to capture it on camera, which is quite difficult. The change in toning only took 3 years. 

39 minutes ago, Coinmaster said:

Hi all,

after I recently lost a Lucius Verus denarius in an auction, I'm now happy with this new acquisition! As I mostly collect one coin of each emperor, I'm very pleased with this nice portrait and to color a green square in my Roman emperors Excel overview. It wasn't a bargain, but, as the saying goes: 'Long after the price is forgotten, the quality will be remembered.' 😉 

Münzen Gut-Lynt GmbH > Auction 15, Auction date: 6 April 2024, Lot number: 248
Lucius Verus, 161-169 Denar 166 Rom L VERVS AVG ARM PARTH MAX. Büste nach rechts. Rv. TR P VI IMP IIII COS II, [im Abschnitt PAX]. Stehende Pax mit Füllhorn und Zweig nach links. RIC 561. 3.09 g. Gutes sehr schön / Good very fine.

See also in ERIC and DIR.

Does someone has more information about this coin type? And please do share your own Lucius Verus coins, thanks!

Great coin! The portrait is really nice indeed. If Im not mistaken, the coin is struck 166 AD which could correspond with the conclusion of the Parthian war in the east. Hence pax on the reverse, and the title parth max and imp IIII on the obverse. 

Several other coins also refer to that war. See below my issue. Marcus Aurelius also struck similar issues. 

Actually.... Historians recently found evidence of extraterrestrial interference at the battle, as shown by this ancient Roman photograph. As you can clearly see, the lights are not caused by the sun 😄  

Cool photos by the way. 

And here's a relevant coin:

The victim:

Guy who organised it:

The accomplices: 

The weapon used (not really, but I like to think that):

19 hours ago, expat said:

I won a common coin of Postumus from Astarte auction in the middle of Feb. It was only 24 CHF, was shipped on 22nd, and two days later was impounded by Customs. There it sat for a week. I got an e-mail from Customs Friday asking me to provide proof of payment, the invoice and why such an item was shipped by registered post. Now Switzerland is not in the EU so I knew I would have to pay an import charge, normally it would be around 7 Euros. I sent all these documents along with the reason for buying it was for personal use. This morning I received an e-mail stating that I would have to pay a customs fee of 35 Euros within 5 working days otherwise the coin would be sent for destruction. So, the end result after speaking to the "official" involved about how they came up with a fee of 35 Euros plus tax, for a 24 Euro coin, was that I had to do a bank transfer to them.

Ultimately the coin has cost me

Hammer total     24.00 CHF
      Buyer's commission (+18.50%)     4.44 CHF
      Subtotal     28.44 CHF
      Payment fees (PayPal [+5.00%])     1.42 CHF
      Shipping costs (Registered mail [+1.00%, +15.50 CHF])     15.78 CHF
      Total     45.64 CHF

Converted to Euros this is 47.52, And now on top of this a fee of 43 Euros, giving a total of 90.52 Euros. To say I am disgusted is an understatement. I will never order anything or participate in an auction from outside EU again.

Rant over

 

 

Good rant 😁 Yes, unfortunately, taxes, import duties and shipping costs can get out of control. My advice: don't buy coin from outside EU, that you can also find in EU retail or EU auction. It's not worth it anymore. And if you do buy a coin from outside the EU, be prepared to pay a lot of addition costs. 

A personal example: as of June 2021 in the NL import duties are 21% (taxes) and 4% duties for coins. Those are levied over the total worth of the goods, including shipment. Additionally, a 12 eur administration/handling fee is to be paid too. I bought coins from Leu last July, for a total of 630 CHF. Addition fees of Leu: 116 CHF buyers fee (and 18,5% buyers fee is quite ok, compared to other sellers), 14 CHF postage/handling (handling lol, whats the buyers fee for then?), 12 CHF banking costs, and 7,45 CHF insurance. Import taxes/duties: 249 EUR. So, in total, the costs were 838 EUR (coins and shipment) and 249 EUR taxes/duties (total: 1049) for coins I bought for 630 CHF (about 655 EUR). Overall, I think in comparison to some other houses/sellers, the shipping and buyers fee of Leu are quite ok. Still, to get these coins in my collection, the additional costs are around 40% (I'm not that good in math, but you get the point) of what I paid for the coins themselves. 

Now, personally, this makes sense if it gets me the coin I really want and cant find anywhere else. For 'cheaper' or 'common' coins (i.e., coins you can find in EU retail of within a normal amount of time in EU auctions) I don't buy outside the EU. It's simply not worth it. I've also contacted EU sellers/dealers if Im looking for a specific coin that I cant find in their stock. Sometimes they have stock not listed, or are willing to look around. 

I also dislike the "pay within 5 days or we will destroy your property" attitude. I mean, seriously, 5 days, given the time these custom offices take to clarify goods. Ridiculous. You should file a complaint. 

1 hour ago, galba68 said:

My friend tells me that it was cleaned in 3 hours...

thanks! I would have guessed it would have taken a lot longer. 3 hours seems quite ok! Despite the honost wear, its a beauty. Lovely patina and the portrait retains lots of details. 

Very nicely done! Did it takes a long time to clean it?

On 2/19/2024 at 6:05 AM, Roman Collector said:

Mike Markowitz has written a CoinWeek article featuring "10 Beautiful Women on Ancient Coins." The article features 5 goddesses and 5 empresses. I don't think it is fair to expect mortals to live up to the beauty standard of Aphrodite or Arethusa, though. From the article:

 

Interesting! That Arethusa sure is a fantastic coin. 

Here's my not so pretty coin with the beautiful Arethusa:

Sorry to hear that. Wishing you get well soon @DonnaML! 

Thats a nice coin @Marsyas Mike! Strong portrait. 

I have far too little knowledge about this to say the portrait is of either B or N. I do hope its B, because thats the reason I got the coin in the first place 😄

Great additions! But to me, that Octavian is an absolute stunning coin. Would love to add that to my architecture-set. 

This is often attributed to Britannicus, but i believe more recent information tenda to point to Nero. 

On 2/10/2024 at 9:50 PM, Salomons Cat said:

The Tribute Penny of Tiberius was one of the first coins that I wanted to buy. I think that it is still one of the most iconic ancient coins, in HJB's 'Greatest 100 ancient coins' it is #50.
What has prevented me from buying one was that it is one of the more common ancient coins and still quite expensive. That‘s why I took my time until a specimen showed up that I really liked. I think that waiting a bit was worth it. In hand, it looks like on the photo.
I really really the style of it.

There is also a video from the seller.

Thats a great coin, nice toning!

27 minutes ago, Prieure de Sion said:

I actually didn't want to dig up this thread anymore - but this company is getting on my last nerve. And the service is getting worse.

I also won a coin in the said auction. It's borderline crazy to say that we'll hold an auction in mid-December, but won't start shipping the goods until a month later. But you already know that from the Leu auction and then vacation. But OK. You knew that.

What's getting on my nerves again today with this company.

I sent Leu a PDF document for German customs in December after the auction. We have put together a PDF in the German Numismatics Forum with the customs number and, above all, the justification for the customs tariff. We ask the auction houses to add this PDF to the package. Since then, it has rarely happened that we pay the wrong 19% tax, but rather the correct 7% tax.

Long story short.

I also sent the PDF to Leu and asked other auction houses to please include this customs paper in the shipment. Leu replied that of course they will do so.

Today the postman rings and wants 180 euros (200 USD) in customs fees from me. But actually it should be around 70 euros (75 USD). So I was charged 19% tax, why?

Why? Because of course there was nothing there. Leu didn't attach my PDF as promised. It was just an invoice and from the item description you couldn't even tell that it was an antique collector's coin. The goods were not even declared as such at least. Of course the customs officer didn't know what exactly the content was and has now taken 19%.

110 euros (120 USD) was completely unnecessarily overpaid.

Thank you for this “great” service.

Is there the possibility to ask your postal service the tax fee that you paid unnecessarily to be paid back to you? 

6 hours ago, JayAg47 said:

Is there a reason why most sestertii/bronzes of the Julio-Claudian, especially of Caligula are pitted and corroded, the majority I've see have these micro pitting, is it due to their age? if so I don't see much damage from the Flavian issues, now they're only a few years younger. 

Good question, I wonder that too. Maybe it has something to do with the damnatio memoriae? In the sense that I can imagine coinage with Caligula on it was taken out of circulation, and the few specimens that survived were otherwise thrown away to be left in water/soil? Or maybe it's because few coinage of Caligula survives, that people that find these / found these are more willing to keep/clean them, in stead of throwing them away due to their bad condition? Just some speculative thoughts...

Digital high five, @JayAg47. That's a fantastic type, in my opinion. Below you may find mine, which is also ... uuuh ... worn 😁

By the way, about Caligula, a new book appeared by Aloys Winterling. Apparently the author gives a different picture of Caligula, in that he wasn't that mad at all. Sounds interesting. I wonder if a member of this board has read it already? 

Great addition, the cuirassed bust is really nice. 

Below is mine, but interestingly it ticks all your objections 🤣

CHECK (small size) - while most contemporary Sestertii only reach an average 28-30 mm, and

CHECK (lower weight) -  the average Severan piece is just 20-21 gr, plus 

CHECK (mine is green!) - while most Sestertii of the late 2nd century were made of a reddish alloy with a high copper content, and last but not least 

CHECK (a plain, laureate bust)- it features a warrior-like cuirassed bust, a prototype of the soldier emperors that were to follow in the later third century, in the finest style of the period

I'd be afraid to touch that Cleopatra/Antony tet. The surface looks as if the coin can turn into dust any second!

Very sad news indeed. As other members, I enjoyed his posts, his knowledge and of course his fantastic coins. I hope the new owners of the coins will get to know who their previous owner was and appreciate the coins even more, so that he will not be forgotten. 

1 minute ago, CPK said:

'Consolation', not 'consolidation'. 😉 You're correct on the meaning - sympathetic comfort, encouragement, etc.

Ah, I see where I got it wrong (seems I get a bit dyslexic when it comes to a second language) 😂

In that case, does 'the second coin on your watchlist' count as a consolation coin? I mean, there are always several targets to go after during an auction. I start with my favorite, go all in, and when I don't win it, I go for the next. Trouble is though, that the order in which the coins come up isn't always helping... Next to that, I have a retail watchlist. So there's always something to go for. I however never buy a coin at random so to say, if I failed at an auction. Like you @kirispupis, I have a retail watchlist and if auctions don't bring me succes and I dont want to save my budget for another auction, I buy a coin in retail. 

For example, here's a "consolation coin", which I got as 'second on my watchlist'. It's in my top 10 of 2023. 

My budget was insufficient for this one (sold for 1900 CHF):

A random retail coin from my collection. Bought because it was on my watchlist and the type is really cool and rare. It sure brings me consolation 😁

I went through my files, and the only two premier auctions I participated in, were a Kunker sale and a NAC spring sale hosted via biddr (I'm not sure the last one counts as a 'premier auction'). I never participated in premier sales hosted by CNG, Roma, Leu, or whatever. Only esales or 'sales' of the less big auction houses (and mainly based in West Europe).  I went for one coin in the Kunker sale, and I won it to my surprise. 

That's too bad. What coin were you after, if you dont mind me asking. Is it a coin that only appears on venues like triton, or perhaps on a 'lesser' e-sale too? I can imagine Triton attracts a lot of collectors with very deep pockets, especially if its in January at the NY venue (that's the one you are talking about, right?) 

Another question completely; what does consolidation in this context mean? I tried translate and google, but only end up with 'making your business stronger' and similar meanings. It's meant that something is to give you some comfort, right? 

Currently slowly going through this one. It helps in better understanding the reverse of some of my coins. And it fascinating to go through it and see/read all the marvellous constructions the Romans had built in their city over the centuries. One day Ill hope to visit the eternal city again with this book in my bag. 

Some fantastic and very interesting coins you got this (last) year, well done! I like the fact that they all have something special about them, or a story to tell: big size, weight, or story. I ended up voting for the Hadrian Agathodaemon (I cant pronounce or spell that properly...), your Valerian with the Gigantomachy on the reverse, and the Lysimachos tetradrachm with Alexander on the obverse. Have a great 2024!