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Welp, I'm officially never bidding at Katz the rest of my life. Might send them a nasty email over it, too. That's some bullshit.

Donna, if you aren't a researcher then I don't know who is!!! JK - I get your point that the definition provided maybe doesn't fit your collecting goals. But your research posts are an incredible source of information and I always enjoy reading your roman republican write-ups.

I won this denarius from moneyer Lucius Aurelius Cotta, Cr. 314. A type I've been after for a while now, with a distinctive design and a very interesting allusion to the moneyer's ancestor's victory in the First Punic War. C. Aurelius Cotta, c. 252, captured Lipara, the coinage of which commonly featured Vulcan as this coin does. A little less common and rarely as well centered and struck as this example so I am really happy to have it!

I live in Chicago, Donna and you are exactly right. Both excellent museums. The Oriental Institute is not a huge space physically, but wow is it packed with some amazing artifacts. The giant winged Lamassu sculpture is utterly breathtaking. Interestingly, I read recently that the institute changed its name to The Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, West Asia & North Africa (ISAC for short). Art Institute is a world class museum as well and is a great spot to bring non-ancient history nerds, because they have so much famous and beautiful art in addition to ancient artifacts. Great way to spend an afternoon.

Wow, insane catch on your part. Did you just remember the Leu auction, or did you come across it on acsearch looking for price comps and recognize the coin? Honestly makes you wonder, as the repair is impressive and I would never have noticed without the "before" photo. Definitely a shame

I'll admit I haven't read this whole thread, but here are my 2 thoughts on provenance: 1) The notion that provenance should be required legally or by norms in the collecting community, or that coins without provenance are substantially less desirable, is worrisome to me. There's no doubt that this trend is on the rise, and it has been the case for years now that in certain situations (transporting coins internationally, etc.) it is indeed legally required. I understand all the reasons why, but the fact that this trend has bled onto coins that are legally "jailbroken" from MOUs, etc. is a problem. It is not reasonable or beneficial, in my view, to pursue a system where every coin in every collection globally has traceable provenance or is otherwise tainted. 2) All that said, provenance can be extremely interesting and therefore valuable. I don't understand the comments here from people saying they don't care. Maybe they have in mind the above issue. But I don't see how you can be interested in history (which is really the genesis for any interest in numismatics) and NOT be fascinated to know specific ownership history of your coins, especially if they were owned by prominent collectors or historical figures. In other words, if you think a piece of ancient Greek or Roman history is cool, how do you not find a piece of Greek/Roman history owned by former US President John Quincy Adams 2x as cool?? (Just a random example)

As most others seem to be saying, I do a mix. Obverse up probably 75% of the time, but totally willing to go reverse-up for coins where the reverse is significantly more attractive, interesting, or important. I even rotate between the two for any given coin, both based on whims ("Suddenly, I feel like looking at the reverse of my quadrigatus more than I feel like looking at the obverse") and intentionally for certain coins for toning purposes

Not a particularly recent datapoint, but I did email with him and purchase books from him on Vcoins in late July '22.

I think this is actually a fantastic argument in favor of having a subforum or some sticky threads - because I wasn't aware of all of these resources. Also, as another poster mentioned, some of these look out of date and there are new batches of fakes appearing on the market all the time. Why not have a place to centralize external resources, and if people want to post updates or discuss recent fakes, ask for authenticity checks, even if some of that is redundant with other resources, all the better.

Definitely support a fakes subforum w/ stickies for each major collecting area, or whatever other format would make it easy to pin specialized lists, resources, content, etc.

This is awesome! you have such a great collection. I think I'm most jealous of your L. Memmius, your Cerco, and your Fonteius.... awesome coins. I love your 287/1 anonymous as well - one of my favorite types - but I love my own example quite a bit so not as envious there 😄

Hey, I'll take it! A gladiator-focused show is not what I'd vote for first, but any high-quality Ancient Rome media is more than welcome in my book. I'm always wondering why they don't do more with how popular fantasy/sci-fi dramas have become. Hopkins is a master, so I'm hopeful this will end up being a good show.

Well you still have to look around and wait for certain coins to become available. All I mean is that your focus would no longer be on shopping for price, you'd just be hunting for what you want. And to answer your question no, I don't think the sole aim of collecting is to accumulate coins; studying and enjoying the history of the coins is half the fun for me

Either that, or once you reach a certain level of wealth, it is arguably rational to just overpay by $1,000 or $2,000 USD to get what you want than to spend hours diligently trolling Numisbids and Biddr for every new auction to find a better deal like the rest of us do... Ah, that'd be nice wouldn't it? Maybe one day...

I wasn't aware of a theft incident at Chicago ANA - I was at that show on Saturday but didn't hear anything. What happened?