KenDorney

I was browsing around some auctions today and came across this gem. Post any of those crazy things you come across!

I have no idea what is best, but there certainly is a worst (Minnesota). Currently on VCoins the system adds in the tax for us but we are responsible for paying it to our state. At some point in the future sales taxes / VAT will become more standardized and most will have to pay. The EU and UK now demand that we collect and pay taxes to them at a certain threshold.

I don't buy the supply chain or shipment disruption arguments. A completely unscientific test is very easy. I live fairly close to a major port. Every time I have driven past in the last three years I have seen no change. No trucks backed up waiting to load cargo, no ships anchored or even waiting to offload said cargo. There are no more or less trucks on the highways. What I see is business as usual. Also in the last few years, aside from toilet paper, I have had no problems buying any product at all. Nothing. Shelves are stocked, there is no lack of anything. Again, unscientific, but I think it holds fairly true. I bought a new car over the weekend. True, the lots are largely empty, but its not really a problem, there are always new cars each week. There just seems to be increased demand for them. It seems to me that we are seeing an increase in greed from top to bottom. People are using this as a way to increase price and profits. How do ancient coin prices fit into all this? Hard to say. The market has been remarkably changed and influenced by an influx of new buyers (I wont call them collectors just yet, as we dont really know how many are purely speculating). There are three options though. Prices stabilize to a new norm, they keep going up or back down. Nobody can know which, but we can all guess and one will be correct. Inflation is a beast of its own, but coin prices are determined very differently being driven primarily by supply and demand (though obviously inflation does factor in). Neat discussion. I have enjoyed reading it, though I didnt see any mention of politics in the earlier posts (not that I wanted to).

That's about the extent of it. Likely never to be seen again. They already have millions of this type of thing in storage. I'm a big fan of the UK Treasure Trove law.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/busted-thousands-of-ancient-coins-and-arrowheads-seized-from-northern-israel-home/

I'm going to simply title this one 'reverses that I like'. Its a terrible picture. I promise they look far nicer in hand!

You will get many different methods and opinions in this thread and what works perfectly for some may not work at all for you. But that is why I really like threads like this. It lefts me see what others are doing and gives me ideas (and allows me a visual of what solutions some choose). I myself like Abafil despite their expense. As @DonnaML points out they can be a pain when stacked up and there really isn't a great method to store them (to me), but my ultimate goal has been to find an antique map case and insert the trays into the drawers. One thing I can say is that likely you will end up modifying your method and probably even change entirely to something else. Depending on how and what you are collecting you might run out of space sooner than you would think.

"I didn't do it! I wasn't even there! I was at a friends house! The check is in the mail!" Seriously, ancient weapons have always been a favorite of mine. I'm really sorry to see mine go to auction, but for many years I have not been able to display them properly, so they weren't getting the appreciation they deserve. They were supposed to be auctioned off last year, but CNG has been very busy lately, and now Dave is on an excavation at Vindolanda in the UK and yet again delayed.

Spear butts are rare and hard to come by. I only had one in my antiquity collecting years. Should be sold at CNG some time this year.

You are not alone. I also prefer coins this way (though generic coins are just fine). I like them with some wear to them.

Wow. Thats a lovely portrait!

Fantastic coin! This is why I love base metals over silver and gold.

Took the time today to break out my Claudius Sestertius. Pretty pleased with this coin, though I would have preferred a slightly nicer example. Which brings to mind, there are a number of coins I've had on my list for years, but was always too cheap to pull the trigger. Now the market is crazy and I cant afford some (still need a Caligula sestertius, but now a nice one is not for me at the moment). Anyway, show us your freed coins!

Does anyone have a set of SNG von Aulock for sale? I can get them from Europe new, but the postage would be a killer.

This is the main objection. I dont care for the applied patina or soil/dirt/sand but its generally accepted and considered an improvement in many place in the world. It's easy to simply not buy them that way, or to clean it off when you get them. For me, I simply dont buy them as I prefer not to clean coins. From what I have seen in the past 100% has been genuine, but I have not looked in a couple years. Despite what some might think based on social media posts, Hussam is a really great guy. You would be surprised at how much material is out there sitting in dealer store rooms. Its truly amazing, really. But, do I think smuggling doesnt happen? Of course not. It always will when there are buyers, especially so from poorer nations.

This is my favorite in the series: One side note, when I copy and paste text into the comment box it converts to an image. Why would it do that?

This is a shame, but scrap metal is still fairly valuable. Crackheads need their fix!

I'm posting this in the Roman section as my primarily interest is the Claudius Sestertius, which I will free from its tomb soon. This week saw about 1,000 new arrivals, but these are some of my favorites.

I think they came out OK. A few had a tiny bit of micro-corrosion under the soil, but solid VF-MS examples.

This Ptolemaic coin is fairly low grade, but it exhibits a number of characteristics of ancient coin minting methods. Most prominently the lathe marks and the casting sprues from the blank planchet. Post your interesting coins showing minting remnants.

Hartill is a bit generic on these, just listing general time frames and not much more. A lot of the variation comes with the rims. G&F as mentioned above delves into quite a lot of detail. Yours is: Western Han Dynasty, Emperors Wen Di, Jing Di & Wu Di, 175 - 140 BCAE Four ZhuObverse: BAN LIANG, no inner or outer rim.Reverse: Blank, as made, no rims.Hartill7.16 // G&F A13.62 This is supremely cool! I like the cloth remnants on the reverse.

No, lot 491, which sold for $180 or $216. Still not insane, but I think a $150 coin. If a sestertius I might have paid around $500.

No, I'm a loser. Nada. Prices might be coming down but are still strong. Lost a nice Faustina As and Commodus sestertius. The hunt continues!

I only noticed these today. I have a tendency to only skim the Byzantine section at Roma as I feel with exchange rate and fees they are priced high overall. But I saw the first one in the list and immediately read the article. Based on what I read and deferring to the authors much superior knowledge I agree they are genuine and quite interesting. I think its entirely possible that these could be a contemporary issue, with an orichalcum-like alloy which when freshly minted might possibly have passed for gold. Hard to say. I might throw in a cheap bid out of curiosity, but the prices are currently pretty strong for the better examples.

Traditional separation between Western and Eastern Han issues is a squared Zhu (Western) and rounded (Eastern), but the answer is 'sort of'. These are always open to some interpretation due to the huge variation of style. Hartill shows this difference clearly with his entires 8.12 and 10.32. But its not a complete catalog. Alex Fishman in his work 'One Thousand Years of Wu Zhu Coinage' goes into much greater detail. He shows the earlier western issues with a straight and angular Wu, with the Eastern with a curved one, like yours. What makes yours a little confusing is the Zhu, which is not entirely square or rounded, but somewhat transitional. Nevertheless, it seems to match Fishman B4.6a, and c (b, d and e clearly show rounded Zhu). As such, I guess the attribution would be: Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperors Guangwu to Ming Di, 40 - 75 AD.