Cordoba

1 hour ago, AETHER said:

I think test cuts on owls are amazing and regret not getting an owl with a test cut. 

My next owl will have a test cut because I have this itch for one. I feel it's a big part of it's history..among other things.

Here is my classic cut-less owl;

 

Ex-Roma

if you reaaally wanted one you could make your own test cut i am joking

Link: this coin was based off of side tetradrachms

Sayf al-din Ghazi II Dirham
Zangids of Mosul, Sayf al-din Ghazi II Dirham, AH 564-576 / AD 1169-1180. Dirham (Bronze, 15.56 g), Mosul.

Obv: Helmeted male head left; Kalima around.
Rev: Name and title of Sayf al-Din Ghazi II in three lines; mint and AH date in margin.
Reference: Spengler & Sayles 61.1; Album 1861.2.

Latest medieval from gorny and mosch, and my heaviest medieval coin by far. not too sure the diameter b/c they are lagging on shipping my wins, but according to spengler & sayles these range from 32-39 mm. 

Mu‘izz al-Din Sanjarshah Dirham
Zangids of al-Jazira, Mu‘izz al-Din Sanjarshah, AH 576-605 / AD 1180-1208. Dirham (Bronze, 15.56 g), al-Jazira.

Obv: Zengid tamgha; names and titles of al-Mu'azzam Mahmud and Wali 'Ahad al-Zahir in outer margin.
Rev: Names and titles of Abbasid caliph and Rum Seljuq overlord in three lines; mint formula and AH date in margins.
Reference: Spengler & Sayles 86; Album A1883.

Ex Gorny & Mosch.

1 hour ago, DimitriosL said:

Thank you all so much! I am mostly concerned about silver(the only type I get at auctions) since I read that they may change colour dramatically if not stored with care. My hands also get sweaty easily so cotton gloves might be a good idea. Most bronzes i own are from uncleaned lots so I am extra worried about bz. One last thing, are the plastic (pouches?) that auction houses ship the coins in safe for short term storage or they contain harmful materials?( savoca is the latest example). 

i cant say for sure but i think savoca ones are pvc free. i've stored coins in them for months (moved them to tray afterwards) and they were fine. plastic flips from auction houses are generally not safe for long term storage.

for silver coins, storing them in pvc free flips should be fine. if you buy a coin tray make sure it is mahogany, a lot of other woods give off gasses that will tone silver coins

I handle my coins after washing hands and drying, nothing too special. Im a bit more careful with gold b/c its a bit softer, but its not a big deal.

Storage I mainly use velvet trays because it looks nice and it's easy to access the coins. I don't have a huge collection so I'm able to store most of my nicer coins in trays. I really like zecchi's trays, good quality and made of mahogany and velvet. i wouldnt recommend felt trays for nicer coins, theyre a little bit more abrasive than velvet

22 minutes ago, Heliodromus said:

My personal pet peeve, which I really don't understand, is with dealers that rather than pricing coins to sell in any reasonable time frame (< 1 year, say) instead prefer to price at 2-3x market and just wait - forever - without dropping price or considering offers. A few months ago I finally gave up on Mr. yellow "sand patina" on VCoins after making a well above market (but well below asking) price offer on a coin I'd been watching for *years*, and not even getting the courtesy of a reply. My offer had included comparables to show I wasn't just making it up. I just deleted the rest of my watch list from that dealer, since it was evidentially just a waste of time.

 

i think that might have been an issue with vcoins emails not sending, i've been able to make offers to him and he's replied in a reasonable time frame

I get really sad when I see another bactrian tetradrachm get bought by a coin dealer at an auction and see it end up on vcoins marked up over 2x the hammer price instead of going to an actual collector. These resellers often just copy paste the auction description and auction picture. There are definitely some fairly priced retail dealers, but I fail to see the benefit some of these dealers provide to collectors, especially when they don't even write their own descriptions.

I've posted this one before, but this is a pretty egregious markup. hammer price at heritage was ~1k including fees a couple months ago, and this ends up marked up over 2x. I feel bad for the buyer, 2.5k can get a much nicer demetrius tetradrachm than this.

8 hours ago, Prieure de Sion said:

Shipping is from the Netherlands to Germany. The Netherlands is a neighbouring country! Within the EU.

Here are the prices for comparison if I now send a shipment within the EU as a private person.

Letter = less than 1 euro
Registered letter = less than 8 euros
Parcel = less than 15 euros

And now the NBS prices:
Letter 8 euros (more than 7 euros earned)
Letter registered 18 Euro (more than 10 Euro earned)
Parcel 40 Euro (more than 35 Euro earned)

 

That's pretty weird, i'd have assumed it would be cheaper to ship to germany from netherlands. My invoice came and shipping to the US is the same rate you have

1 hour ago, velarfricative said:

There's not really anything at all for me in this sale, one of the smallest Bactrian sections I've ever seen in a Roma feature.

exactly my thought too, was hoping for some nice bactrians since leu didnt have much either. was a bit disappointed, hoped for similar selection as the last roma auction

Antiochos III Megas and Euthydemos I Tetradrachms make a nice pair. Antiochos III tried to retake the wayward province of Baktria from Euthydemos after the Diodotids declared independence from the Seleukids. Euthydemos's justification for holding onto the Greco-Baktrian kingdom was that he killed the rebel Diodotos II, so he was not actually a rebel of the Seleukid Empire. Euthydemos lost the Battle of the Arius, retreating to the city of Baktra. Antiochos III besieged Baktra for 3 years, but eventually signed a peace treaty with Euthydemos. In exchange for war elephants, Antiochos betrothed his daughter to Euthydemos's son, Demetrios I Aniketos, known for his cool elephant hat and his campaigns in India.

Antiochos III Megas. 222-187 BC. AR Tetradrachm (28 mm, 17.06 g, 12h). Soli mint. Struck circa 197 BC. Diademed head right (Type Cii) / Apollo, testing arrow and resting hand on grounded bow, seated left on omphalos; to outer left, ΣA monogram above head of Athena left, wearing crested Corinthian helmet; ΣE monogram to outer right. SC 1019.2a; Houghton, Royal, Group C, 17–8 (A3/P5); HGC 9, 20; SNG Spaer 654 (same dies)

Euthydemos I, circa 225-200 BC. AR Tetradrachm (26 mm, 16.55 g, 12 h), mint B (Baktra?). Diademed head of Euthydemos I to right. Rev. BAΣΙΛΕΩΣ - EYΘYΔHMOY Herakles seated left on rock, placing his right hand on club set his right leg and leaning left on rocky seat; behind, monogram of PK. Bopearachchi 9A. HGC 12, 42.

1 hour ago, velarfricative said:

About the pedigree types in general, I would recommend extreme caution when buying. Forgerynetwork lists IBSCC-condemned forgeries for many of the pedigree issue of Agathokles, and the recent die study condemns even more. They are one of the most sought-after types in the entire Bactrian series, and I think it's almost certain that there are very good forgeries out there that haven't been caught yet simply due to how expensive they are.

That's a shame, been wanting to get pedigree issues of Agathokles, but I'll definitely exercise much more caution. I think I can detect bad fakes, but not super confident in detecting all of them. is the best way to get better to look at more coins and check out forgerynetwork?

Update: roma got back to me and withdrew the lot while they research it further

Saw Roma just posted their new sale and they have this odd Agathokles tetradrachm, listed as a contemporary imitation. Seems like there's a forumancientcoins thread about it being fake. Euthydemos and Basileuontos are spelled wrong on the coin lol. This is the previous unsold listing https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=lot&sid=4319&lot=1001. I can't say I'm an expert on detecting fakes, but the coin looks off to me. Wondering if others could give their opinions

https://www.romanumismatics.com/271-lot-464-greco-baktrian-kingdom-agathokles-dikaios-ar-imitation-tetradrachm?arr=0&auction_id=172&box_filter=0&cat_id=&department_id=&exclude_keyword=&export_issue=0&gridtype=listview&high_estimate=7500&image_filter=0&keyword=baktria&list_type=list_view&lots_per_page=100&low_estimate=5&month=&page_no=1&paper_filter=0&search_type=&sort_by=lot_number&view=lot_detail&year=



 

Athens owl tetradrachms are kinda meh to me. I don't think they look particularly nice, and for how common they are they are damn expensive. I prefer new style owl tetradrachms over the old style. I'd be happy if i suddenly owned one, but I wouldn't pay for one. The only cool thing to me is the history behind them, but it's not enough for me to justify buying one. I'd rather buy a hellenistic tetradrachm for the same price.

Not my coin but I prefer the more realistic portrait of Athena

My only obol:

Greco-Baktrian Kingdom, Antimachos I Theos AR Obol. Circa 180-170 BC. Diademed and draped bust to right, wearing kausia / Poseidon standing facing, holding trident and filleted palm; BAΣIΛEΩΣ Θ[EOY] to outer right, ANTIMAXOY to outer left, monogram to inner right. Bopearachchi 4B; Mitchiner 127c; SNG ANS 283-8; HGC 12, 111. 0.55g, 12mm, 1h.

From the Professor Shir Mohammad Collection.

3 hours ago, velarfricative said:

They're not all die matches there; the Hess Divo coin is a drachm. I wouldn't put too much stock in acsearch's premium search, I've seen very poor results from it especially from Baktria. In the recent die study, there were 354 tetradrachms for Antimachos I, so this is just a small proportion of his output.

just curious, where did u find that study? would like to read more about it

40 minutes ago, zadie said:

Those are definitely from the same die. Finding die matches varies greatly between different types of coinages. Some series are smaller and thus used fewer dies, making it more likely to find matches between two different coins. I'm not very familiar myself with the Greco-Bactrians or how large Antimachos emissions were, however judging by the amount of obverse die matches found on acsearch I would venture to say that this die is quite prevalent in the series as a whole.

Thanks for searching, makes a ton of sense. Turns out the 2nd coin in that list is one of my tetradrachms too! Not sure how they measured it to be 33 mm, it's slightly smaller than the 31 mm antimachos tetradrachm i have

Recently my Leu wins finally shipped and after looking at my tetradrachms in hand, I think I have two Antimachos Tetradrachms with obverse die matches. I'm not sure if I'm imagining it, so I added a gif of the two coins overlaid on top of each other, and a side by side comparison. I've noticed the clumps of hair have the same shape and number. I compared them to different tetradrachms of Antimachos, and the hair clumps are different. The tip of the kausia touches the dotted border in both coins. I also think the ear, brow shape, forehead wrinkles, nose, and mouth look the same.

I did not plan on winning both of these coins, since they both have the same monogram, but it would be pretty neat if they were indeed a die match. Are die matches rare to find? I've compared about 10 other tetradrachms with these and they all have slightly different dies.

Greco-Baktrian Kingdom, Antimachos I Theos. 174-165 BCE. AR Tetradrachm, 31 mm, 16.68 g.

Diademed and draped bust of Antimachos I to right, wearing flat topped kausia / ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΘΕΟΥ ΑΝΤΙΜΑΧΟΥ Poseidon, nude to the waist, standing facing, holding long trident in his right hand and filleted palm branch in his left; to lower right, monogram

Bopearachchi 1D

I got images in my excel spreadsheet but it was a pain in the ass. You have to right click the cell, Insert comment, then right click the comment box and click Format comment. Then go to Color and lines, select the dropdown box under colors, and click fill effects. Then select the picture tab and upload the picture you want. After that you'd need to resize the comment box to fit the picture. After that, you can hover over the cell to show the picture. there really should be an easier way to do this 

I acquired this Artuqid bronze in December and it came in the mail recently. The head on the Artuqid dirham was copied from tetradrachms of Antiochos VII, who ruled almost 1300 years prior to Husam al-Din Timurtash. I thought this was a pretty neat coin to accompany my Antiochos VII tetradrachm. The Artuqids captured the portrait pretty well in my opinion, especially his hair. Found it pretty interesting that the Artuqids seemingly found some tetradrachms of Antiochos VII and decided to use the same portrait on their coins.

Note that the white dot under his nose rubbed off. The auction photos had the dot in its photos and I originally thought it was something stuck on the coin.

Seleukid Empire, Antiochos VII Euergetes. 138-129 BCE. AR Tetradrachm, 31 mm, 16.31 g. Antioch on the Orontes mint.

Diademed head to right / BAΣIΛEΩΣ ANTIOXOY EVEPΓETOY, Athena Nikephoros standing to left, resting hand on shield, and with spear under arm; monogram over Π above A in left field; all within wreath.

SC 2061.1j

Ex Roma Numismatics, E-Sale 99, From the Terner Collection

-

Artuqids of Mardin, Husam al-Din Timurtash. AH 547-572 / 1152-1176 CE. AE Dirham, 28 mm, 14.15 g. 

Large diademed male head to right / Legend in Arabic in three lines, 'Malik al-umara / Abu al-Muzaffar / Alpi bin; Legend around in Arabic, 'Il-Ghazi / Timurtash bin / bin Artuq' (all in Kufic).

Spengler & Sayles 26

Ex Solidus Numismatik, Auction 110, From the collection of Prof. Dr. Peter Robert Franke

Feel free to share other Artuqid or Seleucid coins you have!

I was pretty interested in a bactrian coin Nomos had, but I don't really want to buy it because I know it came from a Roma auction in July lol. Their prices are way better than leus tho

1. Roma Numismatics 17 (They had a lot of nice bactrian coins)

2. Aureo & Calico 8 (Coins from al-Andalus)

3. Savoca 6 (random cheap coins)

4. Stephen Album 4

5. Leu 3

I really like Roma and Leu, since they usually have coins I'm looking for. Roma has top notch shipping, though can't say the same for Leu since they waited a month to ship. The coins I got from leus december auction also came sticky, so I had to dip in acetone. surprisingly though leu has had the best deals for me.

21 hours ago, DonnaML said:

I've gotten emails from both Nomos AG and Leu in the last few days saying that they'll have "fixed price" coins at their tables at NYINC, which will also be available through their websites. That doesn't sound like they intend to leave room for discounts. 

Did it say when the Nomos fixed price list will be live?

great list! i really like the trajan camel denarius

looks like there isn't the link

here it is:

The Julian II with the bull reverse is my fav! congrats